Silent Sleeping
by BoxOfTrinkets
Summary: All the Death Eaters in Azkaban are killing themselves one by one, each affected by an unknown curse. Who's going to be there when it starts to affect a certain snarky blonde ex-Death Eather?
1. How Strange

It was raining horrendously and the wind could be heard howling around Hogwarts as the two soaked and disgruntled boys in Quidditch uniforms trudged across the great hall towards the east tower. The hall was empty due to the weather and their angry mutterings could be heard echoing around the huge empty chamber.

"This is stupid." Ron moaned, and shook the water out of his hair, sending droplets raining down on his shorter companion.

"What's stupid? The fact that it's raining, or the fact that the common room is on the other side of the damn castle?", Harry muttered back irritably, lifting a hand to block the water.

"Both," Ron said darkly as they dragged themselves up the long winding staircase that would take them to the common room. "Especially the rain. Why the bloody hell would you have Quidditch practice in the fucking rain?"

"Oi! It wasn't raining when we started practice so shut up," Harry snapped back. He'd listened to Ron bitch all the way from the pitch and his irritation was growing by the second.

Ron grumbled an answer, and was silent the rest of the way up to the tower, where they approached a huge painting of an orange unicorn passed out in the corner of the frame. At the sound of their approach it lifted its head and yawned widely.

"Password?", it drawled in a bored voice, as though it didn't really care whether or not they knew the password.

"Peach flies," Harry said.

The unicorn didn't answer, merely laid its head back onto its front hooves and allowed the painting to swing open.

* * *

The common room they had been moved to at the start of the "eighth" year at Hogwarts was, in Harry's opinion comfortable enough—if not inconveniently placed—directly across a corridor from the Astronomy Tower. The common room had enough squashy armchairs to keep everyone satisfied, although the room itself was relatively smaller than the usual common room, since it only needed to house the eight Gryffindors, five Hufflepuffs, five Ravenclaws and four Slytherins that had returned to finish their magical education. Harry had actually been surprised that any of the Slytherins had returned and a little more than surprised to see that Draco Malfoy had been amongst those Slytherins, along with Blaise Zabini, Theodore Nott and Pansy Parkinson. Harry figured that since Draco's father was locked away in Azkaban and Narcissa was nowhere to be found, he really didn't have much of a choice.

The room was currently occupied with what seemed like every person who lived in the tower. Parvati and Lavender were gossiping on one side of the large couch while Blaise and Neville played a quick game of chess on the other. Zacharias Smith and Hannah Abbot were both studying with the Ravenclaw's on the center rug and Pansy was asleep with her head on Theo's lap while he and Seamus studied on the other couch. Harry spotted Hermione curled up with a book and a copy of the Daily Prophet in front of the fire He quickly maneuvered his way around the forms of random people scattered on the floor and plopped next to her, with Ron on the other side. Hermione finished with her book and charmed it so it would float across the room land in Blaise Zabini's lap. he raised his hand in acknowledgement but didn't look up from the game, apparently determined to beat Neville.

It had been a bit of an awkward situation when they found out they would all be rooming together, namely with the Slytherin's, one of whom was a Death Eater. They had spent the first week of term torn between random violent outbursts and staring silently at each other and not saying anything. The impasse continued until Pansy Parkinson lost her patience, stood up after dinner and demanded that, "If one of you doesn't say something in the next minute I will go insane and believe me when I say that I will take you all with me!"

Ron had inched away from her and whispered to Harry "Blimey she's not kidding is she?"

Malfoy had turned to him with an exquisitely arched eyebrow and drawled "Pansy does not kid Weasley."

Another look at the thunderous expression on Pansy's face was all it took for Lavender to turn Hannah at the same moment that Neville turned to Blaise, and all four plunged into conversation. Pansy had visibly relaxed and from that second on the ice was broken and they managed to get on with out killing one another.

* * *

"How was practice?" Hermione asked, with a smirk, as she leaned to kiss Ron's wet cheek before opening her newspaper.

"Wet," Harry grumbled, as he peeled off his soaking jumper and nudged Hermione so she could cast a charm on him that left him warm instantly. He wrapped his arms around himself and laughed at Hermione's put out expression as Ron, still soaking wet, leaned against her. She smiled back as she cast the charm again on her boyfriend and allowed him to lay his head in her lap as she began to pour over her newspaper.

"Well why have practices in the rain?" Hermione asked, turning a page idly. "Seems a bit illogical."

"That's what i said." Ron piped up, earning himself a glare from Harry as he stretched himself out on the rug, tipping his head back.

He scanned the room from his upside down position and his eyes fell on Draco Malfoy, seated at a desk near the wide glass windows, idly twisting a quill in his fingers as he reread the essay he just wrote. Harry had been shocked into silence the first time he had spotted Malfoy for the first time on the first day of term. His white hair was longer and flopped into grey eyes that seemed to have lost all the fire they used to blaze with. He had paled two shades, and lost half his body weight in the four months after the war. Harry returned Draco's wand with a murmured "thanks," to which Draco hadn't answered. He merely nodded and walked away. Draco had been steadily ignoring Harry ever since. It had slightly unnerved Harry, but he merely chalked it up to not being used to a civil Draco Malfoy.

"Merlin's beard!" Hermione exclaimed suddenly, shocking Harry out of his Malfoy speculation as he turned his face back to Hermione.

"What?" Harry said.

"MacNair's dead." Hermione breathed, her eyes scanning the paper she had in her hands.

"MacNair? Nasty Death Eater bloke? I thought he was in prison." Ron said, pushing himself off Hermione's lap so he could read over her shoulder.

"He is, was." Harry said, rolling over. "How could he die? he's been in prison for all of what, four months?"

"I don't know..." Hermione muttered, turning the page back to the front so she could read the article from the beginning.

_"AZKABAN. Notorious wizarding prison awoke on a drearier note than usual as the morning shone light on the body of Death Eater Walden MacNair that swung from the pipes that ran over the ceiling of his cell. MacNair seemed to have fashioned his pajamas into a rope and hung himself at approximately three thirty the previous morning. The guards were oddly perplexed at the lack of commotion they heard and their puzzled that they didn't notice him swinging until later that morning. What was odd that the guards discovered was that MacNair seemed to be asleep at the time of his death, bringing about the question of whether or not he had been sleepwalking at the time of his suicide. another oddity that was discovered upon a momentary examination of the corpse was the fact that though he was a known Death Eater, the Dark Mark was strongly absent from the man's forearm._

_MacNair was a convicted Death Eater found guilty of multiple counts of murder and torture and had been sentenced to be kissed in a matter of weeks. No further investigation will be made regarding his suicide."_

Hermione finished reading and looked up at them, her eyes wide with confusion. "How strange. Why would the mark be missing?"

"Why would he kill himself in his sleep?" Harry asked, leaning on his elbows and cocking his head. "I've heard of sleep eating but not sleep-self destruction."

"I can't believe they're not going to investigate this further." Hermione said, folding the newspaper to place it next to her and carding her fingers through Ron's hair when he settled himself back down into her lap.

"He's just a Death Eating piece of scum. No one cares about them, they're all just dead to the world." Ron said, closing his eyes and leaning his head into Hermione's touch.

"Not all of them." Harry said before he could stop himself. Hermione glanced at Draco, then turned back to Harry.

"True, but still. I suppose that makes sense. They should still investigate. Those marks are branded by very powerful dark magic and there's not much on earth that would be powerful enough to remove it." Hermione broke off, looking down at Ron's face with a pensive expression. "It's very strange."

"Yeah." Harry agreed. "Strange."

* * *

a huge thank you goes to my wonderful new beta SDino:) who has been the sweetest little birdy ever.

let me know what you think of chapter uno:)


	2. Close Catches

One week later.

Harry scowled grumpily at the dark ceiling during breakfast that morning. The rain from the week before hadn't let up, and the ceiling in the Great Hall was covered in stormy black clouds. Every now and again, the occupants of the Hufflepuff table would jump up in their seats from an unexpected clap of thunder. These were not ideal conditions for Quidditch.

"Bloody fucking rain," Ginny snarled angrily. She plunked herself down in front of Harry, snatched up a piece of toast and tore into it as though it had done her a great personal wrong. "How the hell are we supposed to see what's going on in the game, if were surrounded by fucking water?"

"You tell me," Harry said darkly, as he stabbed at his sausages. "At least we're playing Slytherin, and the lot they usually have thrown together is none too bright."

"I don't know Harry," Demelza Robins piped up next to Ginny. "They're actually pretty damn good this year, and they have Malfoy back as seeker." She bit her lip and leaned over Harry's shoulder to look at the Slytherin table. "They might give us a run for our money."

Harry raised his eyebrows and turned around to follow Demelza's gaze on the Slytherin table. The team was loosely grouped near the center, speaking animatedly to the students gathered around them. Harper was playing as captain this year and the team appeared to be made up of mostly fifth and sixth years Harry didn't know. He finally spotted Malfoy near the edge of the cluster of green, staring with a bored expression up at Harper, his chin resting in his palm. Harry thought he looked awful. There were dark circles under his eyes and his pasty skin had re-adopted the grayish tinge that he had sported through most of sixth year. He looked exhausted.

"Well he looks like shit so I don't think you'll have any problem beating him Harry," Ginny said, as though it settled the matter. Harry shrugged and turned back around to see Ron drop himself ungracefully next to Ginny, Hermione at his side. She sat and immediately handed him a small bottle, which he gratefully took. Harry raised a questioning eyebrow.

"Tonic for the nerves", she explained, as she ran a comforting hand up and down Ron's back. Ron lifted his head and grimaced at Harry, his pallor a soft green.

"You'll be fine," Harry said bracingly before draining his pumpkin juice in one go. "Let's go win this so we can get out of the arsing rain."

Ginny and Demelza grinned, and hauled Ron to his feet to drag him down to the pitch behind Harry.

The wet grass squelched unpleasantly beneath their feet as they trooped down to the changing rooms. Harry was already damp when they reached the pitch and it was growing steadily harder.

Harry peeled off his wet jumper to pull on his Quidditch robes and joined Ritchie Coote. Riitchie leaned against the doorframe, and scowled at the rain. He slapped his bat against his thigh in a rhythmic thwack, thwack, thwack.

"Any advice Captain," he asked wryly.

"Don't fall," Harry answered. He turned back to the team assembled behind them.

"Well c'mon. Let's do this," Harry sighed, and lead them onto the field.

The rain muffled the usual cheers and boos. Harry quickly cast a charm on his glasses so he could see, and stepped up to where Harper stood with the Slytherins and Madame Hooch, the referee. The Slytherins leered as they neared them and Harper smirked as he crushed Harry's fingers during their handshake. Malfoy didn't even look up at Harry, but kept his eyes lowered to the ground while the rain plastered his hair to his forehead.

They mounted their brooms and kicked off at the sound of Madame Hooch's whistle. Harry watched Ron soar off to the goal posts. Harry flew up, high above the game. He kept one eye on the snitch, and simultaneously kept another eye on the ever-circling Malfoy.

"And there goes Ginny Weasely with the Quaffle" A dreamy voice echoed around the pitch. Harry bit back a grin; he always did enjoy Luna's commentary. "Again I really do like her, she's very nice, and she seems to be having a very good day, always good luck to play in the rain—Oooh look she scored!"

Harry grinned as the cheers from the Gryffindors in the stands rose and Ginny did a midair victory twist, shooting Harry a wide smile as she passed.

"Now Harper has the Quaffle and he doges Peake's bludger, and he's going, going, getting closer to Ron Weasley, Ginny's brother. He's very funny, and—oh look, he blocked it! Ten-nothing Gryffindor." Luna called breathily.

Harry circled higher, squinting through the rain, straining his eyes as he squinted for a glint of gold. He had lost sight of Malfoy and began to search the field for the familiar shock of white air in case Malfoy had spotted the snitch.

Gryffindor scored five more times and Slytherin managed to score three goals and Harry began to grow frustrated. Ron was losing his nerve and he needed to catch the snitch now to avoid the possibility of losing. The charm on his glasses was wearing off and a thrill of desperation flew through him as Harper scored another goal.

"Ooh and the large Slytherin captain scores again, its okay Ron you're still great. It looks like the Slytherin seeker has seen the snitch!"

Harry wheeled around in the air, frantically searching for Malfoy. What was Luna talking about? There was no way in hell that Malfoy had seen the snitch before him.

He finally found the blonde speeding upwards at an impossible velocity, almost completely vertical as he climbed higher, apparently chasing something.

Harry pulled his broom around to follow him when a glint of gold hovering right next to his head, just out of his main line of vision caught his attention. The snitch. It was right next to his head. What was Malfoy doing?

Harry snapped his hand up with lightning speed and snatched the snitch out of the air before it had time to switch directions. He felt the mad desire to laugh; it was the easiest catch he had ever made. He had won the game, but no one was paying attention. The entire school had risen to its feet to watch Malfoy fly higher and higher above the game, their shrieks and cries reaching Harry through the rain.

"But Harry Potter has the snitch!" Luna exclaimed, and Harry had to wonder how on earth she saw that. "What is the Slytherin seeker doing?"

Harry looked upwards and froze with the rest of the school to watch with sick fascination as Malfoy spiraled higher and higher, higher than Harry himself had ever dared to fly during a game. Then suddenly Malfoy came to an abrupt stop hundreds of feet above the pitch, his head tilted back and his emerald Quidditch robes fluttering around him in the wind, and Harry knew what was going to happen before it did.

"He's going to fall!" Luna screamed. Just as she spoke, Malfoy tipped backwards off his broom and fell like a dead weight at an alarming speed.

Harry froze on his broom as he watched Malfoy fall to a chorus of screams.

Harry's mind finally screamed for him to move. He streaked towards Malfoy's falling figure.

He chased Malfoy down, down, down…

Four feet off the ground, Harry slammed into Malfoy's solid body with an almighty crash. They both tumbled off Harry's broom and landed hard on the muddy floor. They rolled over a few times, until they slid to a halt just underneath the Gryffindor goal post. Malfoy was on top of Harry and both boys were drenched in mud. The rain pattered around them, and Luna's voice echoed in Harry's ears.

"Harry Potter caught Draco Malfoy and they're on the floor and they're not moving!" she shrieked, sounding so unlike her usual dreamy self. Harry heard the deafening cries of students as they poured onto the field and someone was kneeling over him.

"Potter! Are you alright!" The head mistress slapped him lightly around the face. Harry blinked blearily, and lifted himself up on his elbows. Malfoy was still sprawled on top of him, eyes closed and unmoving.

"Oh crap, Malfoy" Harry said in panicked voice. He grabbed Malfoy's face and shook him. Malfoy was deathly pale, and up close Harry could see how exhausted he really was, his skin was nearly translucent.

Harry pushed himself up into a sitting position and, ignoring McGonagall's frantic exclamations, hauled Malfoy higher on his lap, shoving a hand down his soaked Quidditch robes to feel for a heartbeat. Harry nearly stopped breathing himself as he noticed the thin chest he was touching wasn't moving and he nearly gave up when Malfoy coughed and Harry finally found a faint and shaking heartbeat and Malfoy opened his eyes, meeting Harry's gaze with confused and unfocused grey eyes.

"Potter?" was all he managed before he was wrested from Harry's grip by a stricken looking Pansy as she yanked him into a bone-crushing hug.

"Draco Malfoy my darling! You insolent fool," she cried. She pulled back, slapped him lightly, and shook his shoulders. Malfoy still looked confused, looking around as though he had no idea how on earth he went from flying to the ground. "What on earth were you thinking," she demanded, pulling him into another hug.

"I don't know, I fell asleep…," Malfoy muttered, looking over Pansy's shoulder to look at Harry again, questions heavy in his eyes.

Before Harry could say anything Harry was pulled up into his own bone crushing hug and his vision was obscured by a mass of bushy hair.

"Harry that was so brave and stupid and oh my god Harry what on earth were you thinking," Hermione babbled in his ear, mirroring Pansy's questions as Ginny slammed into him on his other side, joining the hug.

"I don't know," Harry said, when he was finally released from Hermione's and Ginny's arms. He was faced with Ron, Ginny, and Hermione's questioning stares, "He was falling, and I don't know, I couldn't just—." He broke off. Pansy led Malfoy off the field, with McGonagall and the rest of the Slytherins hot on their heels.

* * *

"He fell asleep," Hermione repeated flatly when they had returned to the common room after the game.

"That's what he told Pansy," Harry answered for what felt like the four hundredth time.

"Well if he was asleep why the bloody hell would he fly a million feet in the air and then just fall off, in his sleep," Ron asked skeptically, as though he didn't believe Harry's story.

"I don't know, he looked confused out of his mind when he woke up," Harry mused. He shot a furtive glance to the other side of the common room, where Malfoy stared at the floor whilst Pansy fussed over him. "I don't even think he believes it."

"That was scary as hell mate," Ron said, shaking his head. "It happened so suddenly, and it was so damn eerie, the way he was silent,—" Ron broke off. "Harry it's a bloody good thing you moved when you did, no one else seemed to be able to move."

"Imagine if you hadn't caught him," Hermione whispered with a shudder.

"I almost didn't," Harry said. His skin grew cold at the memory of how close Malfoy was to hitting the ground before Harry caught him, and at the thought of what would have happened had he not flown fast

enough. "I almost didn't move. It was odd, like I was frozen."

"It's so, strange," Hermione said, turning to watch Malfoy as he watched Pansy fret. "I wonder if he was really asleep or-" she broke off, looking pensive. "If he really wanted to fall, and he was just using that he fell asleep as an excuse?"

"I don't think so," Ron answered her. "Blaise told me the other day he hasn't been sleeping at all lately, been falling asleep in class, not eating, the whole bit. Wouldn't surprise me in the slightest if he had fallen asleep."

"Yeah but during a match?" Hermione countered. "Think about it, he's practically hit rock bottom, it would make sense."

"He wouldn't have been trying to fall, Hermione," Harry said, sure of himself. "He's too proud to do anything like that, and even if he did he wouldn't have done it in front of the entire school. And Ron's right. Up close, the bloke's a mess."

Hermione bit her lip but didn't say anything and the three of them turned around to watch Pansy guide Malfoy up to the room he shared with Theo and Blaise, his eyes low, rubbing a hand up and down his left forearm in an almost feverish manner, as though he was in pain.

* * *

once again, thank you dino darling:)let me know what you think of it so far


	3. Completly Fucked

Draco allowed himself to be led to his bed and he sunk onto it gratefully, barely acknowledging Blaise as he stretched out behind him. He watched Pansy cut through the air solidly with her tiny form as she paced in front of him, wringing her hands and muttering crazily to herself.

"Okay Draco," She said after turning to him and staring for another few seconds. "Tell me again what happened."

"I already told you." He snapped, his mind still racing with panic and his irritation with Pansy's constant questions rising.

"Don't be a prat Draco, were trying to help." Blaise admonished from behind him.

"I don't want to talk about it," Draco said, crossing his arms that were beginning to bloom with bruises where he assumed Potter slammed into him and turning his head away from Pansy, forcing his expression to remain neutral and not allowing the fear pounding in his throat to reach his eyes. He was terrified. First the dream then waking up soaking wet in Potter's arms then being told he nearly died. It was too much.

"Stop being a twat and tell me what the hell happened." Pansy demanded, stamping her foot and crossing her arms to mirror Draco's. "Now."

"Now," Blaise echoed behind him.

Draco turned to shoot him a look but his movement was impeded by Pansy grabbing his chin in her hand and forcing him to look at her.

"Draco." she said, her voice laced with warning. Good god she was frightening when she wanted to be.

Draco sighed. "I don't know," he answered, tossing his head to dislodge her hand. Pansy's eyes narrowed. "I don't Pansy," he reiterated with a huff of exasperation. "I guess the circling motion of the broom put me to sleep and I don't know." he broke off and rubbed his arm again through his jumper. It still burned.

"That's lovely Draco." Pansy said, perching her self on a low couch on the other side of the small room and leaning her chin in her palm. "Now what really happened? You allowed yourself to fall off your broom after flying a thousand feet into the air in the middle of the fucking game. Now what's going on?" she repeated forcibly.

Draco leaned forward and hid his face in the cradle of his hands, running them through his hair and rubbing his temple. "I've been having nightmares." He finally said.

Clearly, this was not what Pansy was expecting. Her head tilted to the side and her dark eyes narrowed again. "Huh?"

Draco scowled at her. He hated admitting things like this, and the irritation was bubbling closer to the surface now. "I've been having nightmares, about, stuff." He murmured this time.

Blaise sat up and moved to sit next to Pansy on the couch. "Is that why you've not been sleeping?" He asked, cocking his had in an imitation of Pansy, the pair of them resembling two curious cats.

Draco nodded, praying they wouldn't ask what exactly these dreams consisted of.

"Okay. Nightmares about what." Pansy said, her tone daring him to disobey and not tell her.

_Nosey twats._

"My mother- and him…" Draco broke off and watched Blaise blink and Pansy's complexion pale a shade whiter.

"Him?" She whispered, looking stricken.

Draco nodded, his blood running cold as the nightmare he had on the Quidditch field still fresh in his mind.

"And?" Blaise said, pressing him on.

Draco shook his head to rid himself of the mental image. "And, I don't know, I was just so damn exhausted, I just remember we scored, then I was in another nightmare…" Draco rubbed his temples almost violently, the burn still painful on his arm. He looked up at them, Pansy with her terrified expression, and curiosity shining through Blaise's normally stoic demeanor. "Then the next thing I knew I was on top of Potter on the ground of the pitch and the whole school was screaming." Draco bit his lip. "I really don't know…"

He looked up to see Blaise and Pansy exchange nervous looks before Blaise sighed and lifted himself off the couch to pass Draco on his way out, clapping him solidly on the shoulder as he passed. Pansy lingered for a moment before seating herself next to Draco and leaning her head on his shoulder.

"You okay darling," she said, looking up at him.

Draco leaned his head on hers and nodded, ignoring the burning in his arm so Pansy wouldn't notice and begin to harp on him some more.

She watched him for another minute before standing and kissing the top of his head, ignoring him when he swatted her away from his hair and following Blaise out of the room, stopping to look back at him from the door.

"Try and get some rest darling, you look like shit." She said. Draco gave her a two-fingered salute to which she blew a kiss to him before leaving.

Draco waited until the door shut behind her before lifting himself up and dragging himself to the small bathroom that was connected to the room. His head swam and his feet trembled. Fuck, he was exhausted.

He leaned against the sink and stared into the mirror. Pansy was right. He did look like shit. He ran his hand through his hair, leaving it disheveled on one side and leaned his forehead against the glass, staring into his droopy and bloodshot eyes. He needed some sleep. Or a new face.

He tore his eyes away from his haggard expression to push himself off the mirror to pull up the sleeve of his jumper, closing his eyes and sucking in a breath through his teeth before looking down at his arm.

The Dark Mark on his arm was nearly glowing an ugly red, the corners looking nearly charred, staring jarringly from the background of the red irritated skin of forearm that looked even harsher by comparison to the white skin of his wrist. He reached out a tentative finger to touch the tip of the snake protruding from the skull only to yank it back with an undignified yelp when his finger was burned with an evil sounding hiss.

Heart pounding, he yanked down the sleeve of his jumper and hugged himself tightly, turning around and staring back into his own drawn gray eyes.

He was so fucked.

* * *

Harry stared at the book he had been reading for the last hour, rereading the same line he had just read for the eighth time, something about the discovery of mooncalf eggs. He struggled to keep his eyes open as they stubbornly drooped lower and lower, the page growing foggier and blurrier as his glasses dropped uselessly down his nose and his head drifted lazily towards the table-

"Harry." A sharp voice and a book landing next to his head shook him awake harshly.

"I'm awake!" He said, a little too loudly, his head snapping up as his hand came up to push his glasses back onto his nose. He looked up to see Hermione smiling down at him amusedly, her arms full of books and a copy of the Daily Prophet under her arm.

"Its only eight Harry, isn't it a bit early to be falling asleep on your homework?" She whispered as she set her books down on his table before taking her seat next to him.

"Not if you've been working on it for three straight hours," Harry grumbled, glaring down at the book. "I miss being good at potions," he moaned, momentarily bemoaning the loss of the Half Blood Princes book. He had returned to the Room of Requirement to see if it had survived the feindfyre, but he had reached the wall and turned back, unable to face it. His potions performances had been steadily declining in quality and he thanked Merlin that Slughorn still worshiped the ground he walked on and that was all that was keeping him from failing.

"Well now you know what it feels like to study like the rest of us," Hermione said with a smug smile as she opened her newspaper.

"But I'm the Chosen One," Harry said, only half serious. He enjoyed teasing Hermione with the joke and he smiled when she shot him a look of exasperation.

"Well you're going to be the one chosen for failure if you don't finish reading; you do know that's due tomorrow right?" She asked pointedly, pulling his half completed essay towards her.

"Yes, and I'll finish it, I hope," Harry said sheepishly, pulling his essay back.

Hermione raised her eyebrows in a way that told Harry she didn't believe him in the slightest, but she dropped the matter and turned back to her newspaper.

"Where's Ron?" he asked, eager for a distraction from the tedious essay.

"Sleeping," Hermione answered with a fond smile. "Seems he overexerted himself in Transfiguration. Write." she added, poking him in the shoulder.

He watched her read for a second before realizing how odd it was for her to be reading the newspaper at the end of the day. "Why are you reading that now?" Harry asked, confused.

"Post didn't come this morning remember?" Hermione said, not looking at him. "It was raining too hard. Do your homework."

Harry cast a mournful look out the nearest window, where the rain was currently abusing the outside of the glass with everything that it had. Harry was beginning to detest the rain. Ever since the Malfoy incident at the Quidditch match last week they had been forbidden to set foot outside the castle, which meant no Quidditch practice. It was a little suffocating, plus the constant rain that greeted them each morning was definitely setting a gloomy mood on the entire castle.

"Anything interesting today?" Harry asked, turning his attention away from the rain and watching Hermione's brow rise as she read.

"Yes," she breathed, her eyes furiously dancing across the print, apparently so absorbed in the article she forgot to badger him to finish his homework. "Another Death Eater's dead."

"Who?" Harry said.

"Selwyn," Hermione said, shoving her hair off her forehead and laying the paper flat in front of her. "Apparently they found him this morning with his hands still locked around his throat, dear lord they even included a picture." Her nose wrinkled in disgust. "Blah blah blah, _found dead with no sign of struggle, seemed to be asleep_, blah blah blah, _known death eater with scheduled kissing_, mmhmm… _mark missing from body…no further investigation will be made regarding Selwyn's death_." Hermione sighed and looked up at him.

"Well that sounds familiar," Harry said.

"Very," agreed Hermione as she stared down at the paper with a wrinkle of confusion between her eyebrows. "Again with the missing mark, again with the sleep induced suicide, and again the ministry doesn't seem the least bit concerned. It really doesn't make any sense."

"Maybe Ron was right," Harry reasoned. "Maybe the ministry doesn't care. They were only Death Eaters. Ones scheduled to be kissed no less."

Hermione fixed him with a stern look. "Yes they're Death Eaters Harry but they were still people, and in my opinion the lack of action on the ministry's part is disturbing to say the least." She looked back up at him. "They are supposed to be trying to fix society after all."

"I guess," Harry said, following Hermione's eyes as she dropped them to reread the article.

"Sleeping," Harry mused, and suddenly it clicked, an idea forming on his tongue and he frantically looked up at Hermione. "Mal-"

"Malfoy!" Hermione exclaimed, cutting him off and earning them a vicious look from Madame Pince, who they hadn't noticed was lurking in the shelves behind them.

"The Quidditch game," Harry whispered, leaning forward.

"He fell asleep," Hermione whispered back, her hand coming up to twine in her hair.

"And he almost died." Harry finished.

"It's all connected, but how…" Hermione bit her lip, focusing on him as though he had the answer. Harry shrugged. "I'll be back," she said, abandoning her paper and standing.

"It's eight thirty, the library closes in an half an hour, you're going to look for this now?" Harry whispered incredulously, catching her sleeve as she passed him.

"You're right Harry, the library does close in half an hour, you really should finish that," she said, completely ignoring his question as she tapped his half completed essay with her fingernail before pulling her sleeve out of his fingers and continuing down the maze of bookcases, muttering frantically to herself.

Harry stared after her with his mouth open indignantly before he scowled at her retreating form and turned back to stare at his essay, knowing he'd never get it done on time for tomorrow. His mind was buzzing with thoughts of Malfoy and what in the name of Merlin was going on with him, why he looked like cold shit these days and what connection he had to the deaths of the other Death Eaters.

He shook his head, forbidding himself to be sucked into another Malfoy induced obsession and with a morose sigh he dragged his essay back toward him and continued to list the uses of mooncalf eggs in potions since their discovery in the seventeenth century.

* * *

thanks again dino:) best beta on earth

go on. review. you know you wanna:)


	4. One Step Closer

Shit shit shit shit shit shit Harry chanted under his breath, the words falling in time with his feet as he ran as hard as he could down the winding corridors leading to the dungeons.

He had finally managed to finish his essay, but had overslept and in result was horrendously late for double potions that morning. He knew that Slughorn wouldn't say anything to him for his tardiness, but fuck if he had to partner with one of the Slytherins.

Fuuuuuuuck.

He nearly cursed aloud as he made a hairpin swerve and almost slipped around a corner, nearly dropping his bag and using his hand to stop himself from hitting the floor. He straightened up and kept running, nearly jumping an entire staircase before he forced himself to slow down so he wouldn't crash into the classroom door. He reached it and stopped, taking a deep breath and running a hand through his hair, knowing he must look like hell, composing himself as much as he could before he opened the door as quietly as he could.

He must have looked worse than he thought. He and the Slytherins might have been on less hostile terms that before but it didn't stop them from giggling when they saw him. He saw Pansy smirk with glee and Ron's eyebrows shot skyward into his hair. He self consciously tried to flatten his hair, knowing that the run would have fucked it up even more.

"Harry M'boy!" Slughorn's genial voice boomed from the front of the classroom where he stopped with his wand pointed lazily at the board, the chalk still happily writing instructions on its own. "You're a bit late."

"Sorry professor." Harry panted his face burning as the entire class continued to stare at him. Except Malfoy, he noted absently, who was passed out next to Zabini with his head in his arms. "Overslept, finishing that essay-"

"Excellent excellent-"Slughorn boomed over him, cutting him off and jerking his wand in his direction, tearing his essay from his bag to zoom across the room and land neatly on the pile of other scrolls on his desk. "Have a seat M'boy, was just going over the instructions..."

Harry flashed Slughorn his most charming grin before slipping into the empty seat next to Hermione, who instantly turned on him, her expression livid.

"Harry James Potter where have you been?" She hissed through her teeth.

"I overslept!" Harry hissed back, his heard still pounding from his run.

Hermione glared for another second before her expression softened marginally and she turned back to Slughorn. "At least you finished your homework."

"Yeah, at least," Harry muttered, meeting Ron's sympathetic look over Hermione's shoulder.

"And so," Slughorn said, clapping his hands together as the chalk stopped its writing with a flourish, "You're all going to pair up and complete for me," he pointed his wand at the board for emphasis, "A memory elixir. You have an hour and everything you need is in-for the last time Mr. Malfoy wake up!" Slughorn suddenly snapped, sending a jinx slamming into Malfoy's desk, jerking him awake and sending him sprawling to the floor.

Harry felt an unexpected pang of sympathy as he turned to watch as Malfoy awkwardly struggled to compose himself, standing to straighten his robes and glaring at Slughorn for all he was worth through his hair, a faint pink tinge coloring his face.

"One more time and it's detention Malfoy," Slughorn said, turning away and ignoring the snickers or Malfoy's muted "Yes sir."

"I want you all to pair up into-" he quickly did a head count-"six pairs, yes we will have two pairs of double Gryffindor but the rest of you i want you paired with someone not in your house. Everything you need is in," another wave of his wand, "The storage cabinet. You have an hour."

Harry groaned, irked that he had ran to class for no reason, knowing he'd have to be partnered with a Slytherin regardless of how late he was. Slughorn always made him partner with a Slytherin, usually Zabini. He seemed to feel safer if at least one of the snakes was guarded.

Before he could think of who he was going to have to work with a sharp fingernail tapped him on the shoulder. He turned and looked up into Pansy's puggy face, her arms full of ingredients.

"Scoot Potter, Grangers going to get me an O." She said, unceremoniously dumping the stuff in her arms onto his desk.

"Not on your life Parkinson," Hermione said half heartedly, not looking up at Pansy from where she was copying the instructions. She finished and looked up at Harry, looking surprised to still see him there. "Harry, scoot," she said, echoing Pansy.

With a groan Harry picked up his book and stood, his heart dropping as he watched the tiny class of twelve partner up, Ron with Zabini, Neville with Nott and Parvati with Lavender and Dean and Seamus making up the two Gryffindor pairs. Which left-

"great," he thought uncharitably as he slouched over to the back table where Malfoy already had a fire going under his cauldron as he arranged the ingredients they needed.

Despite the fact that they'd had one civil conversation since the start of term and despite the fact that Harry had saved his life less than a week before, Harry really didn't want to suffer an hour of Malfoy's personality, or the awkward tension that had built between them. Every time he and Malfoy's eyes locked over a meal Harry would break out in goose bumps and he would watch Malfoy shudder before looking away. It was annoying.

Malfoy didn't look up when Harry reached the table and placed his book down, or when he sat and watched him finish whatever it was that he was doing. It wasn't until he finished arranging the roots he was handling that he finally sighed and looked up at Harry.

"Holy fuck Malfoy." Harry blurted before he could stop himself, instantly flushing and biting his lip to stop the words he already said.

Malfoy's eyes narrowed at him and his lips pursed into a thin line, but he didn't retort, which probably meant that he knew just how terrible he looked. He really did too, his pasty skin looked thinner than usual and his gray eyes were overly bright, as though he was fighting to keep them open.

"Hello to you too Potter." He said, turning away and looking back at his notes, running a long pale finger down the neat and tiny writing that covered the page, his other hand reaching out to one of the jars in front of him.

"When was the last time you got any sleep?" Harry asked, still staring at Malfoy's drawn expression and droopy eyes.

"About five minutes ago," he answered dryly, wringing a tiny smile from Harry, who wiped it off as soon as Malfoy turned back to him, not particularly looking in the mood for a joke at his expense. He placed the jar of salamander hearts in front of Harry and sat down himself, pulling the roots he had been so carefully arranging towards him. "Crush thirteen of those and get as much blood from them as you can." He said his eyes on his notes again, handing Harry a short knife.

"With a knife?" Harry asked skeptically, lifting the jar to his face, watching the slimy orange hearts pulsate unpleasantly in the jar.

"Yes potter with a knife," Malfoy answered with a bite of impatience, looking up from the roots he was shredding. "Works better than with your fingers; you won't burn yourself, and look," Harry looked into Malfoy's tired face, his eyebrows raised. Malfoy looked a nightmare, his hair disheveled and his face gray, making him look more agitated. "I know we've been more, civil this year," Malfoy's mouth twisted into a grimace on the word civil. "But if you ruin my grade I swear to god I'll slap you so hard you won't need glasses anymore, got it?"

Not at all surprised by the hostility on the blond's part, Harry nodded and set about opening the jar, ignoring the way Malfoy stared at him for a second longer before turning back to the roots.

Harry had squashed twelve of the disgusting salamander hearts and his fingers were on fire with the burning droplets of blood that had managed to land on his fingers. Placing down his knife down he turned and watched Malfoy carefully scraping the pollen off of bright red flower petals whose name Harry forgot. He was eerily fascinated at the way Malfoy's long white fingers so delicately handled the plants and enviously reflected that he could never achieve that level of grace and finesse in potions when he was fully rested, much less in the state of exhaustion Malfoy was in.

The soft chime of Slughorn's timer floated through the room, telling them they had half an hour left. Tearing his gaze away from Malfoy's hands he picked up the bottle of blood he had collected and made to pour it into the cauldron when a white and surprisingly soft hand caught his wrist. Harry looked up at Malfoy in confusion.

"What?" He asked.

"Read the fourth direction Potter." Malfoy said, pushing his notes to his side of the desk.

Shooting him a quick scowl Harry leaned over and read dutifully. "Add the blood of thirteen salamander hearts after stirring the potion once counterclockwise and four times clockwise following the addition of the radish roots-oh." Harry stopped, his face flushing.

"Catch your mistake?" Malfoy asked with a smirk, releasing his hand.

"Sod off," Harry said without any venom, placing the blood back on the desk, reaching instead to stir the potion. As soon as he had finished stirring the potion clockwise it hissed loudly and turned a garish shade of yellow. Harry grimaced. "Is it supposed to look like that?" Harry asked.

"Course it is." Malfoy answered incredulously, his eyes scanning his notes furiously and sounding scandalized that Harry thought he could be wrong. Still reading his notes he reached over and snatched the bottle of blood from Harry's side and pouring it into the cauldron, immediately calming the color down to an icy blue. A gentle smile curved Malfoy's face and he looked up at Harry. "Not bad Potter. Perfect amount."

Harry was so taken aback by the first real smile he had ever seen from Malfoy that he didn't move from staring at him for a full minute before he realized that he still needed to grind the lentils for the last step. Hurrying and hoping that Malfoy didn't notice his staring, he set about grinding as Malfoy continued to watch the contents of their cauldron with a now critical gaze.

By the time Harry managed to crush the lentils to the proper consistency the timer had chimed the fifteen minute mark, and Malfoy hadn't added the mooncalf eggs he was supposed to be separating. Harry turned to ask him what was taking so long but stopped, realizing that he wasn't moving, his hands still loosely clasped around the short spoon and eggs, his blonde head leaning forward ever so slightly, his breathing heavy and even.

Merlin on a crutch Harry thought, leaning his head down to look at Malfoy's face. Malfoy's eyes were closed and his mouth hung open slightly. He's asleep.

Looking around to make sure Slughorn wasn't around he leaned towards Malfoy, nudging him lightly. "Malfoy." He hissed.

Malfoy didn't move.

"Malfoy!" Harry whispered, louder this time, nudging harder. "Malfoy the potion!"

Malfoy's eyes lids twitched but he didn't wake up. Finally fed up Harry reached out and grabbed Malfoy's forearm, shaking him awake. "Malfoy!"

At once Malfoy's eyes shot open and he leapt up out of his seat, clutching his arm to his chest. "Bloody fucking hell Potter!" He screamed, staggering slightly as he clutched his arm tighter.

"Mr. Malfoy!" Slughorn materialized out of thin air beside Harry, his face red and his expression livid. "I have warned you time and time again about your language. Detention with me tomorrow night."

"What!" Malfoy looked panicked, dropping his arm and gaping at Slughorn. "But sir-"

"No buts Malfoy. Detention." Slughorn snapped, turning sharply on his heel and ignoring Malfoy's sputtering.

Harry watched helplessly as Malfoy stared after Slughorn for another second before his mouth twisted into a snarl and he snatched up his bag, storming out and leaving Harry extremely confused and alone with their half completed potion.

* * *

Draco was home.

He was at home in the manor where he grew up. Back in the marble tile hallway above the first floor with the winding staircase behind him. He was back, slowly and leisurely walking down the long hall, his head filled with the clean and minty scent of his mothers modified cleaning charms. He didn't even stop to think that the manor had been seized by the ministry less than a month ago and it was a guarantee that he would never see it again, and he didn't care because he was here.

He reached out and trailed his fingertips along the marble walls, his movements lethargically slow, listening with a smile to his footsteps echo around the hall, remembering how he used to run around in shoes as a child just to hear his own echo. He turned and smiled as his echo disappeared behind him.

Draco.

He felt the call more than he heard it. It echoed around his head, soft and melodic. He turned back almost in slow motion, taking the time to turn fully around before looking up, making sure his fingers never left the walls.

His mother was standing halfway up the grand winding staircase behind him, dressed in white with her pale hair flowing around her head.

Another slow smile curved his mouth and his heart broke. He hadn't seen his mother in so long. He suddenly thought himself foolish for thinking she was missing, of course she would be here. He took a step towards her.

A quiet smile lit Narcissa Malfoy's beautiful features and she lifted her arm, crooking her finger to beckon her son forward, taking a step behind her, climbing higher up the staircase.

Draco tried to follow his mother, but his feet stubbornly kept up their slow pace, like he was wading through syrup. He reached out his hand, a cry to his mother trapped in his throat, his lips sluggishly slurring the word.

Draco. His mother called again, her mouth still not moving as she turned and climbed up the stairs, following the torturous winding steps with out turning around to see if Draco was still following her.

Draco staggered up the stairs behind her, his chest and head pounding as he fought the suffocating slow atmosphere and the exertion of trying to make himself move faster. With each step his mother's hair was disappearing, and he forced himself faster, faster, higher and higher up the seemingly unending steps.

He nearly blacked out when he reached the top, his breathing heavy and his chest on fire, he couldn't breathe fast enough, and he had lost his mother.

The terror was creeping into the back of his throat as he stared around at the landing, suddenly dark and foreboding. He slowly inched along the hallway, the wordless call of his name urging him forward.

Draco. A long and drawn out scream shook his head and his vision blurred, spinning the room until he stood outside of the porch of his parents room, the huge and dark doors leering at him, daring him to open them.

He raised his hand, his terror climbing when he saw it shake, and placed it on the door. They flew open at his touch, and his scream caught on his tongue.

That face. That face that haunted his dreams and never seemed to fucking die.

The evil slit like eyes laughed at him in that high, cruel voice as the spidery hands held a wand to his mothers head, her limbs held at odd angles as her screams rang through the air in succession with the sound of her bones breaking, inching backwards, dragging his mother to the edge of the balcony.

That's right Draco, follow Mommy. The red eyes called him, Draco's feet inching forward obediently. Obey your orders Draco.

The room began to sway, Draco's vision coming to him in glitches. The laughing white snake face, his mothers twisted body being carelessly tossed over the edge of her porch with the carelessness of a child tossing away an unwanted toy. His own feet following her path, the sight of the aching darkness below, his feet taking him off edge-

The only thing Draco could see was the darkness, feeling the arms close around him that surely belonged to death himself...

* * *

"Don't you think that the days of paranoid stalking are over for us mate?" Ron yawned, rolling over and pulling the covers over his head.

"I'm not stalking anyone, prat." Harry answered with a grin at Ron's disgruntled form.

"Oh really? Where is Malfoy then?" came Ron's mumbled reply.

Harry almost answered before he caught himself and he scowled. "I don't know." He said as defiantly as he could manage, ignoring Ron's amused snort. He knew exactly where Malfoy was, slowly pacing his room with Zabini stationary nearby, probably asleep, But Ron didn't need to know that.

"Yeah I thought so." Ron said, rolling back over and grinning at Harry. "Cuz it's totally not like you to obsessively follow Malfoy after that hissy fit he threw in potions."

"Well, he didn't show up to class for the rest of the day..." Harry mused, catching himself again and throwing a pillow as Ron laughed. "Well he didn't!" He knew he was being painfully predictable but he didn't care. His mind had been racing all day and burning with questions of Malfoy that had him checking the map every few hours to see if the blonde git was anywhere near so he could ask him what the bloody fuck his problem was.

"Well what'd you do to him? Touch his hair?" Ron said with another snort, tossing Harry's pillow back over to him.

"No, the idiot fell asleep so I shook his arm to wake him up and he started screaming at me." Harry scowled before clearing the map and shoving it off his bed, punching his pillow and settling down on it. "Doesn't make any sense."

"Yeah well, since when has Malfoy made any sense?" Ron said, to which Harry shrugged, conceding Ron's point.

"Well don't think on it mate, god knows we don't need you sucked into another Malfoy obsession, I don't think I've recovered from your last one yet." Ron rolled back over and clicked his deluminator, plunging the room into darkness.

"I was right, wasn't I?" Harry mumbled before yawning widely and drifting off.

* * *

The sound of something thumping against the window shook Harry out of his sleep, his hand coming up and banging off the glasses he realized he forgot to take off. Glaring around beadily he turned to the window where the incessant banging was still going on to see something repeatedly hitting the glass. With a groan he dragged himself out of bed and opened the window, letting in a frantic looking Pig who dropped a tiny parcel on the foot of Ron's bed before shooting out the window again, not even staying in the room for two seconds.

"Yeah thanks." Harry called sarcastically after the owl, shutting the window against the chilly air that rushed in. Shivering slightly he flopped back down on the bed, wrapping his duvet around himself and sighing heavily. He stared at the wall for a few seconds before he gave an irritated groan and rolled over, knowing he was never going to get back to sleep now.

After another minute of scowling at the ceiling Harry finally sighed and reached under his bed, digging out the map again and pulling the covers over his head before lighting a dim lumos and opening the map.

"I solemnly swear I am up to no good." He muttered, yawning and rubbing his eyes, feeling slightly less irritated now that he had something to do.

He watched Professor Binns float around his office and Mrs. Norris stalk her way around the third floor for a bit before his eyelids began to droop again. He had no idea what time it was but he knew it wasn't an ideal time to spy on people if he wanted to watch something that was moving around. Most of the tiny, labeled dots were completely stationary. People were sleeping-exactly what he should have been doing-he thought bitterly.

He flipped the map around and watched two dots labeled Harry Potter and Ronald Weasley remain still in the tower and his eyes wandered over the rest of the rooms. Aside from Crookshanks creeping around the common room, it was dead. Another yawn tore from Harry's throat and he raised his wand to clear the map when he stopped, and he squinted down at the aged parchment.

Slowly making it's way down the corridor outside the common room, as though it had just left climbed out of the portrait hole, was a tiny dot labeled Draco Malfoy.

Harry was already out of bed with his hand shoved under his pillow for his invisibility cloak and the map clutched in his hand when he stopped, a voice echoing in his head that sounded suspiciously like Ron.

_We don't need you sucked into another Malfoy obsession._

Harry hesitated for another second before he shrugged and pulled out the cloak anyway, wrapping it around himself and picking up his wand. He had been right about the last one, and plus he still needed to give Malfoy the third degree as to why he completely lost it in potions.

Looking back to make sure Ron wasn't awake and watching him with a knowing smirk he slipped out of his room, closing the door softly and tiptoeing down the staircase leading to the common room.

The fire in the circular room had gone down, casting the room into darkness and causing Harry to accidentally step on something furry. The reproachful yowl and swipe of claws across his foot told him he had stepped on Crookshanks. After whispering a frantic apology he wrapped the cloak firmer around himself and continued to the portrait hole, pushing it forwards and awkwardly climbing out.

The unicorn was a shitty door-watcher. Harry concluded. It didn't even raise its head to drawl at him as he let it swing closed behind him.

The corridor was dark, the closest windows at the top of the astronomy tower and too far away to give the halls up here any natural light. Harry squinted into the darkness before casting the most gentle lumos he could manage, not wanting to attract any attention to himself. The soft light lit up the hallway and Harry checked the map again. Malfoy was just around the curve of the slightly circular corridor. He shoved the map back into his pocket and raised his wand higher, walking as softly as he could to the curve of the corridor.

Once he rounded the curved corner, he spotted Malfoy immediately, walking languidly down the hall towards the stairs leading to the astronomy tower, his fingertips trailing lazily along the wall. The light from Harry's wand caught Malfoy's bright skin and hair, illuminating the fact that he was wearing black cotton briefs, and much to Harry's embarrassment, nothing else, the bare skin of his back and legs looking shockingly white against the backdrop of the dark hallway.

Shaking his head slightly to rid the thought that Malfoy was practically naked in front of him, Harry raised his wand and called out to him in a carrying whisper, taking a cautious step forward.

"Malfoy?"

Not much to Harry's surprise, Malfoy didn't turn around. He took another few steps forward, shortening the distance between them. When Malfoy was a few feet away, Harry tried again. "Malfoy!"

Again, the blonde continued walking without turning. Harry scowled, annoyance breaking through his curiosity. He knew Malfoy had taken to ignoring him lately but blatantly not turning around when Harry clearly wanted his attention was a bit much, even for him. Grasping at his last straw, Harry called out, "Draco."

Not entirely sure why Malfoy's given name slipped through his lips, Harry smiled triumphantly nonetheless when Malfoy stopped walking, his white blonde head still lowered as he turned slowly, his fingers never leaving the wall.

Harry stepped slightly closer when Malfoy finally turned fully and raised his head, his heart thudding nervously for some reason. Malfoy's eyes were wide open, looking overly shiny and a shade of grey too light to be natural. Harry watched, transfixed and confused out of his mind as a slow and almost heart broken smile curved Malfoy's mouth and he looked so young for a second, like a child denied his favorite sweet but not letting his parents know how sad he was about it.

Harry didn't move and the smile slowly faded from Malfoy's face and he turned back around, continuing his walk towards the stairs. Harry stared after him with his mind buzzing with confused errant thoughts before they clicked and Harry nearly laughed. Malfoy was sleepwalking.

Harry followed Malfoy at a slower pace, keeping behind him slightly. When a whimper floated back to Harry he sped up, matching Malfoy's pace. When he was next to him he saw that a distressed expression had replaced the smile and a hand was outstretched in front of him, his lips tripping sluggishly over a warbled cry.

"Draco?" Harry said softly, the name feeling strange on his lips but knowing it was the only thing he responded to. Malfoy didn't look at him this time, but continued up the stairs, his breathing becoming dangerously labored and Harry considered waking him up out of worry, but he had heard somewhere how dangerous it was to wake up a sleep walker, and the curiosity was eating him up alive.

He followed Malfoy up to the top of the tower and by the time they had reached it the blondes face was pink with exertion and he was trembling madly, Harry watched him warily as a look of sheer terror passed over his face, his lower lip trembling as he looked like he was about to fucking cry.

"Draco?" Harry whispered, going ignored as Malfoy pushed open the door and they were assaulted by a rush of freezing wet wind that shoved the hood of Harry's cloak off, but Malfoy didn't seem to notice as he continued forward to the wide windows at the far end of the room, his footing unsteady and his hand outstretched again. Harry watched from the doorway, the terror not really registering until Malfoy reached the ledge of one of the windows and stopped, his hand on the frame and his face tilted slightly up. The panic finally hit Harry as he watched, horrified as Malfoy lifted one pale foot over the edge of the window, with the clear intention of the rest of his body following.

* * *

Thanks SDino:)best beta ever. sorry this took forever guys:(but its super long so it should make up for it:)


	5. Another Close Catch

It was just like the Quidditch game as Harry watched, spellbound with horror as he watched Malfoy's body begin to tip forward out the window. Suddenly it was like lightening jolted through him and he lunged forward, throwing himself across the room and snatching Malfoy out of the air, catching him around the middle and falling backwards and sending them both tumbling to the floor.

Malfoy was heavier than Harry expected and he didn't recover fast enough and in result ended up with a face full of white hair and a bony shoulder in his chest as his head smacked the floor and he landed with an undignified huff.

The landing seemed to shake Malfoy awake and he leapt off Harry as though shocked, stumbling as he landed badly. He stared around with wide and panicked eyes before they landed on Harry, sprawled on the floor with half his torso invisible, a fact Malfoy didn't seem to register as his mouth dropped in shock and he looked down at himself.

"Potter?" He nearly shrieked, stumbling back away from Harry and wrapping his arms around himself. "What the hell are you doing here? And what the bloody fuck am I doing in my underwear?"

Harry's panic faded into annoyance and he scowled. Trust Malfoy to be someone to yell at him after saving his life. Again.

"I don't know. What the hell were you doing up here?" Harry snapped, standing up and straightening his shirt.

"Up here? I was sleeping-" Malfoy's voice drained away as he looked around, bewilderment coloring his pointed features before they contorted in rage and he spun around on Harry. " Why did you bring me up here!" He demanded suddenly, his arms tightening around himself.

"You brought yourself up here! I just followed you!" Harry nearly shouted, the surreal feeling of being yelled at by Malfoy in his underwear shattered by the indignity of being accused.

"Why the fuck were you following me!" Malfoy looked outraged and Harry suddenly found himself fighting the mad desire to laugh.

"Considering I just saved your arsing life, again, might I add, you really shouldn't be complaining about me following you." Harry leaned down and snatched up the invisibility cloak from his feet, making to throw it over himself and leave when a white hand caught his arm. He raised an eyebrow and the hand retreated and its owner stepped back again.

"Saved, what are you talking about Potter?" Malfoy snapped, watching him warily through his sleep deprived eyes. "I was fucking sleeping and woke up when you dropped me on my arse-"

"No you were about to-" Harry indignant response was cut off by the ominous creaking sound of the door being slowly opened. He and Malfoy both froze, Harry meeting Malfoy's terrified glance before slowly turning towards the door to find they were being watched by a pair of wide yellow eyes.

"Shit." Harry breathed as Mrs. Norris suddenly turned and disappeared through the door, meowing softly.

Harry's heart skipped and he yanked the cloak around himself, knowing that Filch would there any second. He took a step towards the door to leave when a panicked whisper of "Potter!" stopped him.

He turned to see Malfoy with his eyes darting around Harry's general area, looking almost comical as Harry realized he couldn't see him. His arms were wrapped just below his chest, revealing a flat stomach below a slightly protruding ribcage that Harry couldn't seem to keep his eyes off of.

He shook his head to rid himself of the disturbing thought and the image of Malfoy's abdomen out of his head, so distracted as he was he didn't notice Malfoy glaring at him until he sent him another snappy "Potter!"

Harry blinked, training his eyes firmly on Malfoy's tired face "What?" He hissed through his teeth, inching towards the door, his heart pounding erratically as he listened for the sound of Filch's shuffling gait.

"Potter don't leave me here." Malfoy hissed back, his eyes trained on a spot slightly left of Harry's head.

"Just cast a Disillusionment charm." Harry shifted nervously on his feet, freezing as he heard a door open down the stairs.

"I don't have a wand!" Malfoy rolled his eyes as though it was the most obvious thing in the world.

"Not my problem." Harry scowled, throwing off his hood so Malfoy could see his scowl and reaching for the door again.

"Come on Potter that cat hates me because I kicked it third year-"

"You kicked Mrs. Norris!"

"I was thirteen! Holy fuck Potter what does it matter-"

"That's your problem isn't it then-"

"Stop being a twat Potter-"

"Oh I'm being the twat am I-"

It was the first fight they had had all year, and Harry found himself mildly enjoying the sudden return to normalcy. But before he could shoot another insult at Malfoy the sound of the door at the bottom of the stairs being thrown open froze the rest of his retort in his throat. He turned towards Malfoy with his mouth still hanging open, meeting Malfoy's gaze that was now more desperate than angry.

"Up here are they Mrs. Norris?" Filches seedy whisper floated up to them.

"Damn it Potter please?" Malfoy finally hissed, tightening his arms around him self consciously and biting his lip nervously, his feet shifting

Harry groaned, closing his eyes and sighing before walking over to Malfoy and wrapping an arm around his bare midsection and yanking him under the cloak with him. Malfoy let out an indignant yelp and he collided with Harry, the cold skin of his bare back sending shivers through him as he brushed his arms.

"Christ Potter how about a warning-" Draco started angrily, pulling away from Harry and wrapping his arms back around himself.

"Malfoy shut up!" Harry hissed, grabbing Malfoy's shoulder and pulling him towards the nearest wall so Filch wouldn't run into them, causing Malfoy to stumble into him.

"Well if you would-mmmpf!" Malfoy was cut off by Harry slapping a hand over his mouth and muffling the outraged retort that he was in the process of spitting. Harry kept a firm grip on Malfoy's face as he turned him so they were face to face.

"Shut. Up." Harry repeated. Malfoy tossed his head to dislodge Harry's hand before giving him a dirty look which Harry stuck his tongue at. The blonde narrowed his eyes at Harry and shoved his shoulder, making him stumble slightly to the left. Not really thinking, and momentarily forgetting the danger of being caught they were in, Harry turned and shoved him back, pushing his chest forcefully and sending him falling backwards.

Malfoy didn't recover and landed roughly on his arse but managed to grab Harry's arms on the way down and pulled him down on top of him.

Harry went down ungracefully, landing badly on his knees with one of Malfoy's knees in his thigh and a bony elbow in his chest.

"Malfoy you bastard-" Harry was cut off this time by Malfoy slapping a hand over his mouth, none too gently. Harry contemplated biting his hand when his head was jerked forward and he met Malfoy's frantic stare and the blonde jerked his head to the left.

Harry turned his head and saw Mrs. Norris seated directly in front of them, watching them alertly with her ears twitching suspiciously.

Harry stared at her stupidly for a second before Malfoy poked him sharply in the ribs just as the sound of shuffling footsteps and wheezy breathing could be heard just outside the door.

Harry and Malfoy scrambled off of each other, scooting backwards with Malfoy cursing at Harry under his breath and Harry pushing Malfoy's shoulder until they ended up away from the cat with Harry's back pressed against the wall and Malfoy ended up between Harry's legs, his bony shoulder digging into Harry's chest and his legs pulled up under his chin.

Harry froze for a split second at he looked down at Malfoy curled up against him, his eyes wide with fear and his arms wrapped around himself protectively as he shivered lightly. He nearly protested when the door creaked further open and the ancient caretaker stumbled in, glaring around beadily.

"Where are they Mrs. Norris?" he cooed somewhat breathlessly as the mangy animal twined around his ankles. Mrs. Norris crept so she was directly in front of them, staring at Harry as though she could see him and released a tiny meow.

Harry's heart sank as Filch tilted his head and took a step closer. Harry pressed himself as close to the wall as he could, jumping slightly as he realized Malfoy had pressed himself back and closer to Harry, his body turned towards him and his bare shoulder pressing into Harry's chest.

A tiny and completely irrational part of Harry's brain drew his eyes to the delicate looking collarbone in front of him, looking positively tasty whilst the more rational part of his brain was screaming that this was Malfoy, and as of right now, he was way too close. However the rational part of his brain was growing quieter and quieter as Filch drew closer.

"Who's there?" He demanded, jowls quivering unpleasantly as he took another step closer. Malfoy pressed himself closer to Harry, whimpering lightly and turning his head away from Filch so his temple pressed into Harry's chin, sending the musky scent of sleep and boy wafting up to Harry and sending his heart racing.

A flare of panic raced through Harry as he realized how much Malfoy's proximity was affecting him and he nearly shoved Malfoy away when a bony elbow caught him in the ribs and he gasped, glaring at Malfoy and mouthing "What?" furiously.

"Your breathing!" Malfoy mouthed back, looking more panicked now as Filch raised his lantern and glared almost directly at them.

"I know you're there." Filch nearly crooned, earning a muffled squeak from Malfoy and Harry finally realized what a compromising position this would be to be caught in, on the floor with a nearly naked boy on the astronomy tower in the middle of the night. Malfoy seemed to be thinking along the same lines; he began to inch slightly away from Harry when Filch suddenly took a step directly at them, staring intently in the space where Harry was pressed against the wall.

Fuck.

Harry scooted as far as he could, nearly flattening himself against the wall and trying to ignore his heart as Malfoy did the same against his front. Harry was suddenly immeasurably grateful that Filch was inches in front of them and he had a valid reason to be terrified, otherwise Malfoy might learn the real reason his heart was pounding so hard he was beginning to feel lightheaded.

He was shocked out of his reverie at once by two sensations; one by the sight of Filch's claw like hand an inch away from his face and by Malfoy tucking his head underneath Harry's chin to bury his face in Harry's neck.

Harry jumped, suddenly shocked out of his mind but had enough sense to duck his head, wrapping his arms around the skinny body in front of his and pressing his face into the white hair with his eyes screwed shut just as Filch's hand swiped through the air his hair had been occupying moments before.

Harry waited for a beat, _not _enjoying the scent of Malfoy's hair before looking up, still holding tightly onto Malfoy to see Filch sulking back towards the door, Mrs. Norris at his heels but still glaring in their direction with her wide yellow eyes.

"We'll find them Mrs. Norris." Harry heard him whisper to the cat before they vanished behind the door, the slam it made echoing around the chamber and making it sound strangely empty.

Malfoy didn't move and Harry paused, wondering if he should when Malfoy suddenly jerked his head away from Harry, shaking the cloak off of his head and scooting away from Harry. He stood and turned away, wrapping his arms around himself again and keeping his gaze trained on the floor.

Harry stood, watching the blonde uncertainly as he rubbed his right hand over his left arm, where Harry knew the Dark Mark was. Harry suddenly understood why Malfoy had been keeping his arm hidden. He cleared his throat self consciously and kicked his foot on the floor, bending and picking up the cloak and turning to Malfoy. "We should go."

"Yeah." Malfoy muttered, all the fight seeming to have left his voice and Harry was inwardly grateful that he wouldn't have to fight with him all the way back.

Harry let Malfoy go ahead of him, watching him as he walked slowly across the room and down the stairs after checking that Filch wasn't lurking in the doorway. Harry's head began to buzz with questions that he itched to ask Malfoy, the most prominent being what the hell he had been thinking when he came up here but, as he watched Malfoy walk with his head drawn and his step heavy he decided against it, knowing that despite the fact he didn't have a wand Malfoy was known for getting physical. Harry made a mental note to talk to Hermione at the first chance he got and picked up his pace, falling into stride beside Malfoy.

He turned and saw that Malfoy was still shivering and Harry blushed again as he remembered he was just wearing pants. He thought for a second before holding out the cloak to him.

He turned and fixed the cloak with a wary glare, looking at it as though it would explode and Harry scowled, annoyed again. Only Malfoy would be suspicious of a favor. Harry shrugged and made to take back the cloak when suddenly it was snatched from his hand. He watched Malfoy tug it over his shoulders and his lower body disappeared, leaving only his head floating next to Harry with a set jaw and challenging expression, as though daring Harry to say something.

Harry didn't and settled for walking in silence, his eyes twitching warily as he looked out for Filch, Malfoy's head doing the same.

When they reached the portrait of the unicorn Harry had to say the password twice and Malfoy had to swear loudly at it before it woke up and allowed them in, looking highly affronted. Once inside Malfoy took off the cloak, handing it to Harry with a nod and turned away, his arms still wrapped around him as he left up the stairs that would lead him to the room he shared with Zabini.

Harry watched him leave and felt the cloak in his hands and realized it was still warm from Malfoy's body heat. He felt his face flare up and he began to panic again before he shook his head firmly and told himself he was being ridiculous. He wasn't thinking about Malfoy like that, and he never would think about him like that.

It was Malfoy for fucks sake.


	6. Crushes and Curses

Draco managed to keep his composure until he reached the door of his room and he was sure Potter wasn't behind him anymore. He fumbled with the door handle with shaking hands before pushing his way in slamming the door, leaning against it and giving a frustrated muffled scream in his hands, running his hands through his hair and ignoring the groan from Theo at his outburst.

Draco was pissed.

That fucking idiot. Though he and Potter had managed to maintain civility and despite the fact that he had saved his life twice now, he really hated him sometimes. Of course he's Harry fucking Potter, he just had to go play the fucking hero again and make Draco think. He had managed to convince himself after the incident in the room of things hidden that he was over Potter and he didn't have to think about him anymore, but then he had to go and, be Potter and reawaken the ridiculous crush he seemed to have on the idiot.

"Fuck." Draco snarled into the darkness, flushing guiltily when Blaise made a petulant sound in his sleep and turned over.

He leaned down and snatched a stray t shirt off of the floor, yanking it over his head and vowing to never sleep in just his underwear again. He flopped himself down on his bed, rubbing his eyes and sighing sleepily. Fuck he was exhausted. This had been the first night he had managed to get any sleep and he felt worse than ever.

He leaned over his bed, digging underneath it to the small box he kept under his bed and fishing out his wand from where he had shoved it under his pillow. He always slept with his wand no matter how much Blaise teased him about being paranoid. He didn't trust the Gryffindor and was still half waiting to be attacked in his sleep.

He opened the box and dumped out it's contents, lighting a soft lumos and yanking the curtains shut as he bent over the newspaper clippings, his heart pounding as he read the familiar names.

Dolohov, Avery, MacNair, Selwyn. Dead. All of them dead.

With the damn mark missing.

With a twist of dread and fear Draco looked down at his arm to the angry looking burn, glowing hotter now, singing the edges of the grisly tattoo and his skin. The mark was killing them, one by one.

He gulped as he realized his theory was right, he had tried to kill himself twice so far, each time the mark growing hotter and hotter, until after the Quidditch game it finally began to singe the skin of his arm. After Dolohov had died in the summer and his own mark began to itch he had immediately began to panic, knowing that the ordeal couldn't possibly be over that easily.

If the curse didn't kill him the burn trauma from his arm would.

Draco bit his lip, choking in a sob as he covered his face in his free hand. He knew this was coming, there weren't a lot of them left. He was going to die.

He shoved the clippings back into their box, throwing it off of his bed and waving his wand to brighten the spell and curled up on himself, resting his chin on his arms and sat staring into the bright light.

He couldn't fall back asleep. He just couldn't.

* * *

Harry shifted in his seat uncomfortably, looking around the nearly empty library and trying to ignore his stomach as it rumbled with hunger. He didn't like being in the library with nothing to do, especially with lunch starting and Madame Pince creeping around and glaring at him suspiciously like he had some horrible hidden agenda for her precious books.

He chanced another look toward the door, praying that Hermione would hurry up and get here so he wouldn't have to keep staring at his worn out copy of Quidditch Through the Ages to keep up the ruse that he was studying.

He scowled down at his book. He knew it was a bad idea to listen to Hermione and meet her in the damn library. She probably got distracted by a book on a shelf she was passing and settled herself down for a quick read and completely forgot about him.

Just as he contemplated leaving and just finding Hermione after lunch the heavy thud of books to his left made him jump and he looked up to find Ginny grinning down at him before she plunked herself down next to him.

"Hi ex-boyfriend." she chirped cheerfully, settling her self down next to him and pulling one of her books towards her.

"Hi ex-girlfriend." Harry said, happy for the company and happier that it was Ginny. After the summer he and Ginny had come to terms with the fact that too much had changed between them and they had parted ways amicably enough, remaining close friends even after Ginny had gone back with Dean. He often sought out Ginny for help whenever Ron and Hermione were too wrapped up in each other to worry about him.

"So why you here alone reading," she lifted up the corner of his book. "Quidditch Through the Ages? I know you're not studying Harry."

"I'm waiting for Hermione." He answered, idly turning a page and staring as Ginny pulled out a quill and rolled her eyes.

"You know she's probably lost herself in one of the bookcases right?" She said, flipping through her book and doodling in the corner of a page.

"Yeah I know." Harry sighed. "Why are you here Gin? Its almost lunch?"

"I'm waiting for Dean, he pissed off McGonagall again and he's in detention." Ginny laughed, shaking her head. "Find anyone for yourself yet dear ex-boyfriend?"

"Nope." Harry said. This was a regular topic with them. Ginny was growing increasingly worried that he hadn't found anyone yet and they usually spent their study time going through a myriad of options for him.

"Well Eloise is always single." Ginny offered, laughing quietly at Harry's put out expression.

"With good reason." Harry said, grinning at Ginny.

"You know she's actually very nice, its not her fault she's unfortunate looking." Hermione said, appearing out of nowhere and dropping into the seat across from him and Ginny, slamming the heavy book in her arms on the table.

"Light reading Hermione?" Ginny asked pointedly, giving the book a wary glance.

"Something like that." Hermione answered, opening the book and taking out a folded newspaper page she was using at bookmark, smoothing it out and handing it to Harry.

He took it with raised eyebrows and looked down at it. "A coupon for wand cleaner?" He asked.

Hermione rolled her eyes and reached over, flipping the page in his hands and pointing to a tiny thread of words on the other side. "No, that."

Harry squinted down at the tiny article, his eyes swimming to make out the tiny print.

_The bodies of two known Death Eaters, Alecto and Amycus Carrow, were found dead this morning by the guards at Azkaban Wizarding Prison. Though in cells on opposite sides of the prison, both Carrows were found in similar condition with their heads smashed open, apparently from repeated impact to their cell walls. Both Alecto and Amycus Carrow were convicted Death Eaters scheduled to be kissed. No further investigation will be made regarding their deaths._

Harry looked back up at Hermione who watched him with her eyebrows raised. "Again?" Harry asked, handing her back the article.

"I know, and I cant find anything in here that will tell me what the damn connection is." Hermione said irritably, leaning her head on her head and sighed.

"Speaking of dead Death Eaters, Malfoy nearly killed himself again last night." Harry said, watching Hermione's eyebrows furrow and she tilted her head.

"What do you mean?" She said, slamming her heavy book and slapping Ginny's hand away when she tried to pull it towards her.

"Yeah what do you mean?" Ginny asked, sticking her tongue out at Hermione and turning back to Harry.

"Remember the Quidditch game?" Harry asked and the girls nodded at him. "It was like, that, but he was asleep, and he nearly walked off the damn astronomy tower."

"Well why didn't you wake him up?" Ginny asked.

"I don't know." Harry answered, still watching Hermione as she muttered to herself and stared down at the newspaper. "I was curious?" He said, making Ginny laugh.

"Well I'm not." she said, standing and shoving her book back into her bag. "I've had enough drama in my life. I'll see you kids later." She ruffled Harry's hair and smiled Hermione before leaving.

"We should go to," Harry said, nudging Hermione on the arm. "I'm starving."

"We should; I left Ron with Seamus and I really don't trust those two alone." Hermione said, pulling a face as she hoisted her heavy book into her arms. "I suppose we'll worry about this later."

"Yeah, Malfoy's alive, I guess that's a good thing." Harry said, not really knowing why and pointedly ignoring the odd look Hermione shot him.

"Mmhmm. A good thing."


	7. Truces and No Answers

Draco shifted uncomfortably in his seat, fighting to keep his eyes open as he listened to Professor Flitwick continue to explain the theory of something Draco had already forgotten about. He was so fucking tired, he didn't think it was even legal to be this exhausted. He flexed his hand nervously, his wrist throbbing uncomfortably as it rubbed against his shirt and making him bite his lip to stifle the minute gasps of pain threatening to escape. He was pointedly ignoring Pansy as she continued to send him suspicious glares, her eyes narrowing each time he refused to look at her. He kept his gaze firmly ahead, unwilling to look at Pansy and risk completely losing it.

In all honesty he was quite proud of himself. He had managed to keep his composure for most of the day; only cracking once, when during breakfast he had felt a strange warmth on his arm and had looked to find his arm bleeding. He had never gotten to sleep after Potter walked him back to his room the night before, keeping himself awake by occasionally pinching the sides of his thighs and bursting into humiliated tears whenever he thought about the inevitable fact that he was pretty much fucked.

Potter. Just remembering how the idiot had managed to nose his way back into Draco's life made him scowl. He had been perfectly fine this year, putting the past behind him and keeping to himself, adamantly ignoring the idiot, going as far as considering throwing the Quidditch game just so he wouldn't step on Potters toes by winning. He had even talked himself out of the irritating infatuation he had been harboring for his relentlessly heterosexual nemesis and gave up his mild Potter obsession, firmly telling himself there was nothing to fight about anymore, and therefore no reason for unnecessary interaction.

But Potter had always managed to find out whatever was going on with him. Stupid Potter could read Draco like a fucking book.

A hot flush crept up the back of Draco's neck as he remembered their ill fated session as potions partners. He knew almost immediately after Slughorn had assigned them to work with someone out of their own houses that he would be paired with Potter, none of the other Gryffindor's even gave him the time of day, except Weasley and Granger, both of whom he had apologized to and could grudgingly admit that they weren't completely horrid. He had spent the first quarter of an hour of class half hoping that he just wouldn't show up to class, feeling a flare of panic when he was rudely awakened and saw him in class, looking out of breath and irritatingly attractive.

Draco's flush grew hotter and he felt his face darken with color as he remembered his idiotic move, falling asleep near Potter, around Potter, where it could've happened again. He swallowed heavily. It was rare, very rare, usually after another Death Eater died (in what he assumed was his place), but some nights he was actually able to sleep fully through the night, without his horrid nightmares and without waking up to Potter and his dumb questions.

Draco jerked out of his reverie as Pansy nudged his arm, muttering something about him staring off into space and his arm pressed against the inside of his sweater roughly, sending twists of pain shooting up his arms and Draco had to clench his teeth shut to avoid screaming at Pansy the way he had done to Potter the day before. Potter had done some serious damage the day before when he had shaken Draco to wake him up. A heavy bruise was forming up the middle of the mark and his skin had begun to tear in places. The only real reason he had gone off on Potter was because it hurt like a bitch, and now he had a detention for it.

He sighed, not even sparing a glance towards Pansy's pout as she continued to stare him down. He hated Slughorn, the fat bastard. If anything he should have given Potter the damn detention for manhandling him.

He was suddenly grateful that he didn't have double Charms with the Gryffindor's, he didn't think he could face Potter today. Second time he saved his life and the second relatively tame conversation he's had with him and he was in his bloody underwear. Plus he could bet his broomstick that Potter was just waiting for him, practically salivating for answers to questions that he no doubt had.

Draco pulled his left arm closer to him and further away from Pansy in case she felt the need to nudge him again. He was almost positive the tattoo on his arm was the reason he had nearly succeeded in killing himself twice so far, and he was completely positive that it wouldn't let up until he died and it would disappear, just like with the rest of them. There weren't that many Death Eaters left, his father amongst others, and he knew his time was limited.

Draco would never allow himself to admit how fucking scared he was. He was going to die, and whilst that had been a very real possibility for the last two years, now it was inevitable, and he didn't even have anyone to turn to this time. When he was sixteen he at least had his mother to go to when it all became too much, and his father wasn't around, but now with his mother gone, he had nowhere to go. Just sit and wait for the curse to finally finish him off.

Draco shook his head, refusing to think on it. It usually made him depressed to the point of anger and he usually ended up throwing whatever was in his hands at whoever was nearby. But he needed to think about it, because if he didn't his traitorous thoughts would turn back to Potter, and as much as Draco enjoyed thinking about Potter, now wasn't really the best time.

The most irritating thought had been echoing around his head since the Quidditch game and the events last night had only amplified it.

He really should thank him.

Just the thought of doing so made Draco blush furiously, adding to Pansy's suspicion. It wouldn't really be all that bad—Potter didn't really seem to hate him anymore—he acted civil enough, and he didn't grate on Draco's nerves quite as much as before, and it would get him off of his back, maybe leaving him alone long enough to allow him to die in peace.

Another hard shove to his arm and another shot of pain though Draco's arm shook him out of his thoughts and he nearly snapped at Pansy when he saw her gathering her books in his arms and with a sinking feeling he realized that he had mused his way through the entire lesson without hearing a single thing. Fuck.

"Lend me your notes yeah?" He asked Pansy as he slung his bag over his right shoulder and cradling his left one so no one would jostle him on the way out of the cramped Charms classroom. Pansy's note taking abilities were abysmal but shitty notes were better than no notes.

"I suppose." Pansy sighed, making sure to let Draco know just how put out she was by his request. Stupid bitch. "Maybe if you would spend less time staring off into space thinking about Potter then maybe you would stand a chance of passing."

"I had other things on my mind besides Potter." Draco snapped at her, sending a death glare to a chubby second year who had brushed his arm as they walked. He took Pansy's hand as she offered it to him, who seemed unaffected by his mood as she led him towards the Great Hall.

"Like what?" She said, knowing he hated it when she nosed into his business but not caring. "What in the name of Merlin's left bullock could have been making you blush like that other than Potter?"

"My detention." Draco sulked, letting her pull him behind a tapestry and down the hidden staircase it revealed and ignoring the fact that she had caught him blushing like an idiot.

"Well yeah you have detention." Pansy said, hiding her smirk as Draco narrowed his eyes at her. " you completely lost it on Potter yesterday, what on earth did he do that was so bad you had to scream at him?"

"Nothing he was just-" Draco couldn't think of any excuse to explain his bizarre freak out. "He was just being annoying."

"Mmhmm." Pansy said disbelievingly as they emerged from behind a door pretending to be a solid wall. Draco rolled his eyes, his steps faltering as he saw Potter emerge from the hallway across from them, Granger on his heels. Potters eyes immediately fell on him and Pansy and narrowed, Draco could practically hear the accusing questions being screamed at him from Potters mind. Draco sighed tiredly. Now or never.

Pansy turned to see Potter and rolled her eyes at Draco's ridiculousness. "I'll see you at lunch Draco." She said, raising on her toes to kiss Draco on the cheek before pulling her hand from his and walking away towards where Blaise was watching them at the entrance to the hall. He watched Pansy shake her head at him and they both went inside, Blaise raising his eyebrows at Draco before he left.

Draco swallowed nervously as he watched Potter dismiss Granger and make his way towards him

* * *

"But it still doesn't explain why he keeps doing this, or why the other Death Eaters are picking themselves off." Harry said yet again as he and Hermione made their way down to the Great Hall, mingling in with a crowd of fifth years as they left the Transfiguration classroom near the library.

"No, but from what I read it's a curse of some sort," Hermione said, shifting the heavy book in her arms and running her hand through her hair tiredly. "Maybe a derivative of the Imperius Curse, or something heavier, I just don't know. I don't know where the source of it would come from, or why it would kick in now, when it was cast, I have no idea Harry."

"Me neither, he doesn't stay still long enough for me to ask him anything about it." Harry said irritably, remembering how Malfoy had scampered off to bed the instant they had been out of danger.

"Well you could try now," Hermione said as they came to the adjacent hallway leading to the Great Hall. She motioned with her head and Harry followed her, his eyes landing on Malfoy and Pansy Parkinson as they emerged from one of the secret passageways Harry knew started somewhere up on the fifth floor, their hands intertwined. Harry's eyes immediately fell on their hands and he felt his eyes narrow. What the hell were they doing holding hands?

A flush washed over Harry as he realized how foolish that thought sounded, even to him and he shook his head harshly to dislodge any thoughts about Malfoy, thoughts which had been buzzing around his head unpleasantly since their little escapade to the astronomy tower the night before.

Harry had never gotten back to sleep after that, but had instead stayed awake in his bunk, his wand lit and his gaze firmly fixed on Malfoy's name on the map, making sure he didn't go anywhere again, and to keep himself focused on something other than the image of Draco's collarbone that kept floating into his mind.

"Harry?" Hermione said, nudging Harry's arm. Harry blinked, realizing with a blush that he had been staring off into space.

'Wha-Oh yeah, good thinking 'Mione." he said as he watched Pansy kiss Draco before she left, leaving Draco against the wall across the hallway alone. Harry did the same, kissing Hermione on the temple as he told her he'd see her in a bit. She sent him a smile as she went down the hall on her own, trying to maneuver herself with her large book still in her arms. Harry steeled himself for the mood Draco was no doubt in and moved across the hallway, weaving his way through the younger students, trying to catch Draco's eyes, but the blonde seemed content to simply wait for him, his eyes on the floor in front of him.

As Harry drew nearer he could see Draco up close again. He looked worse then ever, as though he hadn't gotten a wink of sleep last night despite the fact that he hadn't moved all night. Harry finally reached him and cleared his throat awkwardly, staring at Draco until he finally looked up, a faint blush tingeing his face and his blonde fringe hanging in his eyes.

"Hey." Harry said, biting his lip.

"Hi." Draco said, looking even more uncomfortable than Harry. Harry paused, looking around at the students ambling around them, shooting them odd looks and Harry realized they must look odd, standing next to each other and not looking or speaking. Harry tried again.

"Sorry about the detention." Harry tried, leaving there instead of giving into the temptation to ask why the hell he had even yelled at him in the first place. A flash of irritation crossed Draco's face and Harry mildly relaxed. An irritated Draco he could handle, he wasn't sure what to do with a quiet, polite one. Draco opened his mouth like he was going to snap at Harry, but seemed to stop himself and just sighed instead.

"Actually I wanted to thank you Potter."

Harry knew he looked stupid, and he didn't blame Draco for looking at him like he was, but he couldn't help his mouth as it fell open and he blatantly gaped at the blonde as he continued to stare at him. What the fuck?

"Um," Harry countered intelligently, grasping at something, anything to respond with.

"Eloquent as ever Potter." Draco sighed, running a hand over his face tiredly and shifting his feet. "Shall I use an easier vocabulary?"

"You're an arse. What the hell do you mean thank you?" Harry finally managed to ask, realizing he sounded horrendously rude but too shocked to give a shit.

"I mean thank you for-" The blonde stopped, biting his lip and closing his eyes, breathing in heavily through his nose and exhaling before continuing. "Not letting me fall last night, or at the Quidditch game." a red flush worked its way back up Draco's neck and he looked back up at Harry, a scowl on his face. "And its your damn fault I have the fucking detention anyways you prick.

"Well why the fuck did you freak out on me then?" Harry shot back.

"You woke me up." Draco snarled, pushing himself off the wall and standing up to his full height to stare down at Harry. Harry straightened, refusing to give him the upper hand despite the fact that he still stood an inch or two taller than him.

"And that constitutes screaming at me and leaving me with a half finished potion? Which we have to redo by the way." Harry huffed. It had been embarrassing enough the first time trying to explain why he hadn't been able to finish the potion without Draco and he wasn't looking forward to doing it again.

"Yes." Draco snapped, not bothering to elaborate and seeming not to care at all that it hardly answered Harry's question. They glared at each other for a second, both too irritated to continue. Harry could see how tired he truly was this close, the dark shadows under his eyes looking harsh in the light from the torches in the hallway and his silver eyes muted. He stared until Draco dropped his gaze, looking lost instead of angry.

"What the hell is going on with you Malfoy." Harry finally asked, softer this time, not wanting to anger him again and risk something getting thrown at him.

"Nothing Potter." Draco said, running a hand through his hair, leaving it rumpled on one side. Harry's hand itched to smooth it back in place, run his own hand through it and see if it was as soft as it looked, but Draco was talking again and he forced his mind way from the thought."-Wanted to thank you, maybe now you'll leave me alone and stop inexplicably showing up everywhere-" Draco continued, not noticing Harry's blush as he continued to talk to his shoes. "And don't worry Potter." Harry looked up, his head cocking in confusion. "I'll finish the potion tonight in detention."

"Um-" Harry tried again, earning himself an eye roll from the blonde. "Bye Potter." he said, offering a tiny and forced smile before shouldering past him and continuing down the hall in the opposite direction of the Great Hall and up a staircase to take him back to the tower. Harry watched him go, feeling torn between following him and demanding the truth and following him and begging to see those collarbones again and-

Harry shook his head. He really needed to stop with those thoughts. Ron was right, the last thing he needed to be sucked into another Malfoy obsession.

* * *

hi:)im sorry i havent updated in like years, and i dont know if anyones even following this story anymore, but for those who are here:) and thanks to everyone who's been reading and who's been reviewing and those who favorited this and everything:)

And a special thanks to my birdie Dino:) best beta on this earth


	8. Grasping at Straws

Draco sneaked another glance up at Slughorn, keeping his fringe down over his eyes to remain unnoticed. He had finished the potion half an hour ago, and it was quietly simmering next to him. He still had twenty minutes left in his detention and had been instructed to read the next potion assignment. Instead he had snuck in a stolen copy of _The Dream Oracle _and had it propped open inside his copy of _Advanced Potion Making. _He absolutely detested Divination and had declared the subject to be complete bullocks and had dropped it as soon as was feasible; but despite the fact that he had already more or less accepted his fate, his pride wouldn't let him go that easily, and he found himself grasping desperately for anything that might help him.

Slughorn coughed loudly and Draco flinched, ducking the book down and schooling his features into practiced innocence, watching Slughorn finish coughing before dismissing his stare with a wave of his hand and Draco turned back to his book, rolling his eyes and looking back down to the book.

_And though Lucid Dreaming is possible through both meditation and practice, dreams are for most entry ways into our self conscious and therefore beyond our control. However if one decides he wants to control his dreaming there are many mind exercises he can practice to strengthen his psyche in order to do so. (Page 394). There are however, no spells or meditations to avoid dreaming altogether, as the mind never slows despite the fact that our body does in sleep. If one wishes to-_

Draco's eyes began to droop, and he could feel his head falling forward, the page coming nearer and nearer until his nose touched the page and he jolted. He was so tired, he couldn't even remember the last time he had been this tired. Even after the first night the Dark Lord had taken up residence in his home he had managed at least two hours, granted he had the protection of multiple locking spells and wards, but still. He ran a hand through his hair, not giving a fuck about how it looked anymore and vaguely thinking that he really needed it cut.

He glanced over the potion bubbling innocently on the edge of the desk and cursed Potter for the eighteenth time that night. Stupid Potter and his stupid eyes, (seriously, could they be any fucking greener?) that looked at him like he bloody _cared_, like he was _worried _about Draco. He hated when people looked at him like that, with the tiniest bit of affection. It made him all nice and gooey and more inclined to do what they asked, though he would adamantly refuse at first and throw a fit about it, a fact Blaise loved to exploit, and it was only worse when Potter did it. Draco didn't care that he did it unknowingly, it still pissed him off to no end.

He reached over and pulled the potion closer to him, not trusting his luck and allowing it to stay so close to the edge and fall and make him waste another night in detention. He snuck another look at Slughorn, the fat bastard looking closer to sleep than Draco, and looked back down at his book, his eyes swimming slightly before focusing on where he had left off.

_-Fact that our body does in sleep. If one wishes to avoid dreaming altogether, Dreamless Sleep potion is recommended, though prolonged usage has been known to cause long lasting side effects that directly affect a persons ability to dream normally in the future-_

Draco slammed the book down, expertly shoving the _Dream Oracle _into the sleeve of his robe and turning a page of the potions book slowly, pretending to linger on the last sentence pensively as he watch Slughorn shake himself awake and stroll down the isle of desks to the back where Draco sat. Draco kept his mouth shut and his eyes wide, staring at Slughorn examining his potion as though his opinion were the most important thing on Earth to him.

"Excellent work Mr. Malfoy." Slughorn mumbled, looking begrudgingly impressed as he lifted the ladle from the potion and allowed the slivery liquid to drip back into the cauldron. "But do try and stay awake during class." He finally looked at Draco, his eyes softening fractionally. "You of all people need to do well this year, considering."

Draco wanted to slap him. He hated the way some teachers looked at him, with their fucking sympathetic eyes that clearly said _oh poor boy, he really is lost_. The ones who clearly glared at him with hatred he could handle, but pity he couldn't.

Instead of expressing his dislike for Slughorn he nodded instead, recognizing his dismissal and gathered his things, slipping the _Dream Oracle _back into his bag and leaving, ignoring Slughorn's pitying eyes on his back.

The halls of Hogwarts were nearly empty. Draco kept his eyes down, making sure not to make eye contact with the errant first-year just coming out of detention, heading the opposite direction. Draco waited for the child to pass before turning to move behind a suit of armor, slipping into a hidden passage he knew stood behind it and continued up the stairs, bypassing the direction of the east tower as he climbed up to the first floor from the dungeon until he stood in front of the hospital wing, a place he knew well, not by choice mind you. The light in front of the door was still on, telling him that Madame Pomfrey was still awake, though with curfew approaching she was likely ready to close up soon.

Draco entered as quietly as he could, remembering whenever he had to spend the night here how he hated whenever people used to storm in and make a great deal of unnecessary noise. He found the mediwitch leaning over a third year Hufflepuff who's name escaped Draco on one of the beds, the boys skin a violent shade of pink as she handed him his potions to take. He waited quietly, staring down at his feet until he heard the Hufflepuff swallow his last potion and Madame Pomfrey turned around, starting and clutching a hand to her chest as she saw Draco standing there.

"Oh dear, Mr. Malfoy you gave me such a fright!" she said, fanning herself as she crossed the room to her cart full of potions and other scary looking objects. "What can I do for you?" She asked, her tone immediately switching to one of concern.

"Yes ma'am, " Draco mumbled, his face flushing with embarrassment as he remembered the last time he had been in here. "I would like some Dreamless Sleep."

He kept his eyes on the floor, so he didn't see the mediwitch's eyebrows first fly up in surprise, then furrow in concern. Madame Pomfrey had always harbored something of a soft spot for the blonde Slytherin, she remembered how often he had wandered in here during his sixth year, looking like death warmed over and taking Calming Draughts like his life depended on them. She pursed her lips as she watched him watch the floor. She had honestly been waiting for him to show up for quite sometime, considering everything the poor boy had been through. She still had her own nightmares.

Draco kept his eyes on the floor, growing slightly nervous as he didn't hear her answer him, but looking up when he heard her rummaging through her cart, straightening up and holding out a small vial of shiny blue liquid to him, a small sad smile on her face.

Draco was at once suspicious of her lack of questions, but the promise of a blissful and uninterrupted full nights sleep was too much to him.

"Thank you ma'am." he muttered, taking the potion and leaving, still not looking the witch in the eye.

The walk up to east tower was even more quiet than his trip to the hospital wing. Curfew had been five minutes ago, but thankfully Draco didn't encounter anyone as he climbed the never ending staircase up to the tower. He finally reached that damn orange unicorn picture and stopped, watching it sleep for a minute, debating whether or not to scream or throw something at it, but finally deciding he was too tired for either he settled for merely tapping it on its nose, scaring the hell out of it and making it jump.

"Ugh, what?" It demanded, its eyes narrowing on Draco.

"Peach flies. Now open up you great ugly brute, I'm tired." Draco snapped, hiding a smirk as it scoffed indignantly before swinging open.

He climbed through, landing unsteadily on his feet and looking up, expecting an empty room and nearly yelping in surprise when his eyes landed on Harry Potter on the couch in front of him.

Draco immediately froze, as he did whenever Potter was around and Potter looked up at him, his green fucking eyes landing on his own and they stared for a second before a small lopsided smile crossed his face and he lowered the book he had been reading.

"Malfoy." He said calmly, too calmly for Draco, who was still trying to regain his breathing.

"Potter." He answered as steadily as he could, hiding the Dreamless Sleep potion in his fist.

They stared silently for another second, Potters eyes still locked on Draco's searchingly.

"How was detention?" he asked, his eyes lingering on Draco's closed fist now.

Draco moved it behind his back, reaching up and running a hand through his hair, Potters attention switching to that hand. "Fine."

Potter nodded, biting his lip thoughtfully and in a way that made Draco blush. A flare of panic arose in him and he cleared his throat nervously. "I'm going to bed." He said, not entirely sure why he was still talking to him.

Potter nodded again, his lip still in his teeth and Draco crossed the room, heading up the staircase to his and Blaise's room, stopping when he heard Potter call softly from behind him. "Goodnight Malfoy."

Draco closed his eyes and took a deep breath. No.

"Goodnight Potter."

* * *

Harry groaned frustrated, biting his lip and rereading his Transfiguration essay, trying to make heads or tails of his conclusion to determine if it made sense or not. He had spent the last hour trying to finish it but, as he read through it again, struggling through his own words, he didn't think he got it quite right. He shook his head, rolling up his essay again and reaching for his _Guide to Advanced Transfiguration _and flipped back to the chapter he had left off on with extraordinary bad grace.

This stupid essay wasn't even due for another week, but Harry was currently locked out of his room, and the only things he had to entertain himself with were the contents of his bag, and since Malfoy had offered to finish the potion for him, he really didn't have to keep reading on it, so in a burst of optimism that told him he could do it on his own, he attempted his essay.

Which was of course foolish, considering he didn't understand half of what Professor Ashthorne, the new fellow teaching Transfiguration talked about these days. He was mostly getting by on a mix of luck, favoritism and Hermione's whispering instructions into his ear during class.

Which of course is why he went up to his room, to go ask Ron where he might locate Hermione and was treated to the sight of the pair of them entangled on Ron's bed, snogging passionately with Ron's shirt unbuttoned and one of his hands shoved up Hermione's jumper.

Which led Harry back to the couch in the common room, bored and a little traumatized.

Harry listlessly skimmed through the pages, bored out of his mind. He closed the book and sat there for a second, pouting like a petulant child before feeling stupid and reaching into his bag, fishing around for something better to do. He pulled out his wand, waved it half heartedly and made a small shower of sparks shoot up, twinkling lightly before disappearing. Harry sighed and put his wand down and shoved his hand back into his bag, pushing aside a deck of Exploding Snap cards, an errant chess piece that squawked indignantly at him, until he finally pulled out the map.

Considering Ron might have had something of a point whenever he caught Harry watching the map listlessly and called him a stalker, he shrugged lightly and opened it, fishing his wand out from under his bag and tapped the blank parchment.

"I solemnly swear I am up to no good."

Harry settled his back against the couch, watching random students around the castle. He grimaced slightly as he watched two dots labeled Hermione Granger and Ronald Weasley up in his room, watched Nearly Headless Nick float his way across the fourth floor with no regards to walls whatsoever, and finally turned his attention to the potions classroom, his eyebrows raising when he saw it was empty.

He raised his eyes up to the sixth floor to locate Slughorn's office, finding Slughorn alone and stationary, presumably asleep.

_Alright Malfoy where are you, you bugger?_

Harry looked back up to the potions classroom, tracing a path with his eyes to the east tower to find him and felt a flutter of something that felt like panic in his stomach when he saw that he was standing right outside the common room.

He quickly wiped the map clean, shoving it back into his bag and opening his Transfiguration book back on his lap, schooling his features into concentration and attempting to look completely unsuspecting as the portrait hold swung open and he watched Draco stumble in, landing unsteadily and nearly fainting when he looked up and saw Harry there.

Harry took a second to bite the inside of his cheek to hold off a laugh before looking up into Draco's piercing silver eyes for a second, waiting to see if he would say or shout something. Deciding he was in the clear he went with a small smile, offering Draco a neutral "Malfoy."

Draco watched him suspiciously, still looking a bit faint and he swallowed heavily before answering. "Potter."

Harry surveyed Draco in front of him, realizing he looked worse than ever, Harry almost felt sorry for him, he looked like complete shit. Draco's eyes darted around nervously, and Harry found himself staring deep into Draco's tired eyes, following the straight line of his nose, across his strong jaw and down the graceful slope of his neck, down his slender frame and down one thin arm until he noticed Draco's hand clutched around something so tightly the pale knuckles were white.

"How was detention?" Harry finally asked, still staring at his closed fist, old habit and what he supposed was a natural suspicion of all things Malfoy immediately sending his mind into all sorts of ideas about what it was that Draco was clutching so tightly.

Draco seemed to notice his intensive staring and he moved the hand behind his back, moving his other one to comb through his hair and Harry followed the motion, watching the too long white blonde strands stand up on end and for the second time that day feeling his hand itch to reach over and smooth it down.

_No. _Harry's mind slapped away the errant thought with a slight panic.

"Fine." Draco said shortly, his voice sounding far away as Harry continued to stare at him. He couldn't help but think that tired and panicked was a good look for Malfoy, and the way his hair stood up on end combined with the rings around his eyes made him look nearly demented. And if he were to be frankly honest the bastard had never looked quite so fetching.

He bit down on his lip, nodding absently at Malfoy and watched as a pretty flush worked its way up Draco's slender throat, coloring his face a soft pink and Harry's heart started pounding. He fought to keep his calm demeanor as his rational head voice began screaming at him and a slight panic rose in his throat. This was Malfoy. Draco bloody Malfoy. A boy and a dick no less, and he had absolutely no reason to be staring at him and thinking things like…that.

"I'm going to bed." Draco said suddenly, Harry finally focusing on his face and seeing that he looked nearly as panicked at Harry felt. Harry nodded again, still fighting to stay calm as he watched him stride across the room and called out before he could help himself.

"Goodnight Malfoy."

He heard Draco's steps falter on the stairs and he waited, expecting a rude remark or a snappy retort, but all he received was a tired "Goodnight Potter"

* * *

hi:)i perfectly understand that this chapter is really short and maybe a bit pointless, but i promise it is going somewhere:) and the second part of it is almost ready, but i cant post it because...

this chapter isnt beta'd because MY BETA IS GETTING MARRIED!

andi didnt want this sitting around for much longer so im disobeying him and posting anyways:) show him some love and review telling him you wish him the best then maybe he wont be mad:)

the next part will be up soon I PROMISE. till then enjoy this:)

-lizzie


	9. A Slight Miscalculation

It took Draco a week to finally take the Dreamless Sleep potion still stashed under his pillow. The first night, falling asleep was a complete accident. He had left Potter and gone upstairs fully prepared to take it and sleep the rest of the night away in peace. But halfway through his mental debate on what the consequences might be, he had unconsciously tipped back and rested against his pillow, had closed his eyes for a split second and had awoken to Blaise hitting him around the face with a slipper, telling him to wake his lazy arse up and to get to breakfast with him.

It had taken a few seconds for it to sink in for Draco that he had managed to sleep without making another attempt on his life, without the help of the Dreamless Sleep. That morning he had nearly torn apart his Daily Prophet as he searched for even the tiniest article of a dead Death Eater, or something. Nothing had shown up in that mornings prophet, so it was with slight reluctance that Draco drifted off to sleep the second night without the potion, once again awakening perfectly fine if not ill rested.

The third time he tried it had been prompted on by Potter, no fucking surprise there. The idiot had taken to watching Draco nearly constantly, his thick black eyebrows furrowed in concentration and his green eyes filled with something that looked like concern that made Draco want to slap him. They had ended up as partners again in Potions that week, thankfully working on a conjoined essay rather than another potion, and Potter had spent most of the hour they had staring at Draco, opening and closing his mouth like he wanted to say something until Draco's resolve broke.

"What Potter?" He had finally sighed, laying down his quill and forcing himself to meet Potters eyes, refusing to acknowledge the blush that crept up his throat at Potter's proximity.

"Are you alright?" He had asked, biting the inside of his cheek, leaning slightly away as though he could sense Draco's irritation.

Draco was mildly put off by the question. Was he alright? No, as a matter of fucking fact he wasn't. But as far as Potter was concerned it was none of his goddamned business. And where the fuck did Potter get off thinking he could just ask Draco a personal question like that and expect any answer of some sort? Sure he'd been playing up his hero role more than usual and, Draco grudgingly admitted, he did owe him a fair bit, but that still gave him no right to ask him such things. Especially not when he stared at Draco the way he did, all wide green eyes and worry.

"Yes, I'm fine." Draco had answered shortly, deciding now wasn't the time nor the place for the smart retort forming on his tongue.

"You sure?" Potter had pushed, raising his eyebrows in a way that left no question in Draco's mind that he didn't believe him one bit. "Because you kind of look like hell."

Draco had instantly taken back every thought he had ever had in thinking that Potter was attractive as he felt his eyes narrow, Potter looking nonplussed. "Well my apologies for not looking up to your standards Potter. You're not one to talk anyways, did you even brush your hair this morning?" He had tried for a sneer, but he felt it fall short.

"No." Potter had answered shortly, looking unfazed by Draco's insult, only adding to Draco's irritation. "You should get some more sleep though." He had added, looking back down at the book he had been skimming and leaving Draco to stare at him incredulously.

So Draco had childishly not taken the Dreamless Sleep, instead sitting fully dressed on his bed, his arms crossed petulantly as he stared at the curtains around him, determined to stay up yet another night and see if Potter liked how he looked then when a yawn overtook him and he passed out where he sat, waking up to Blaise laughing at the state of his clothes.

The fourth time was a complete accident, and after falling asleep on an armchair in the common room he had slipped into another nightmare, only awakening when he fell out of his chair and landed harshly on the rug, trembling madly with his arm bleeding and the sobering thought that nearly died once again. He spent the rest of the night with a warm rag pressed to his arm, sat staring at the fire until people started getting up for breakfast.

The fifth nigh found Draco seated on the floor by his bed, the vial of potion twirling from one hand and his potions book from fourth year open on his lap as he read and reread the side effects and after effects of the Dreamless sleep, refusing to turn the lights off even as Blaise whined at him.

"Come on you bleeding fuck, turn out your goddamned light." Draco heard him distantly mumble from underneath his covers, his pillow seated on his head.

"Right now you big baby." Draco answered shortly, biting his lip in concentration as he continued down the long list of side effects.

"For fucks sake Draco take the damn potion and go the fuck to sleep." Blaise said angrily, grabbing the pillow off his head and weakly tossing it in Draco's general direction.

Draco's vision began to blur and the long list of effects began to swim together on the page. Despite the fact that he had actually gotten a decent night sleep for he past week with the exception of the night before, Draco was still exhausted as fuck. He had once again fallen asleep in potions, only avoiding detention because Blaise had the sense to smack the back to his head to wake him up.

Fine.

He thought defeated, shrugging off his dressing gown and crawling onto his bed, shutting off his light and ignoring Blaise's muttered "finally."

Draco sighed, shutting his curtains around him and lighting a soft light, holding his wand up to the vial, staring deep into its icy blue depths.

With trembling fingers he placed his wand down and wrested the stopper from the mouth and clenched his hand around it, bringing the bottle up to his face.

"Please," He whispered desperately, stroking the neck of the tiny bottle and giving a choked gulp. "Please work."

And he shut his eyes and tipped the potion down his throat.

* * *

Harry sighed, sinking further down in his squashy armchair and staring into the dying fire that he really didn't have the heart to get up and restart. He had been sitting there twirling his glasses absentmindedly in one hand for nearly an hour after he was once again, been locked out of his own room whilst Ron and Hermione entertained themselves. He was just happy he had thought to check the map first this time before just walking, though Merlin forbid he just walk into his own room unannounced right?

In a sense he was a little glad that Ron was currently occupied and therefore wasn't around to badger Harry the way he had been for the past week. Harry couldn't really blame him in any sense, he knew he had been acting strange to say the least, but honestly Ron should know by now that odd behavior was the norm with him. But it still didn't stop Ron, and now even Seamus from bugging him to tell them what the hell he was always so preoccupied with thinking about these days that he couldn't even focus on their conversations.

Though, Harry suspected, if he did tell Ron exactly what it was that was constantly on his mind as of late he was almost positive that he would either faint or hit him, or some combination of the two.

Harry sighed, shoving his glasses back on his face and looking down at his bag, trying to muster up the energy to check the map for the object of his obsession. True to form, Draco Malfoy had once again secured himself a place in Harry's mind, though he was cropping up in Harry's thoughts a bit more than was warranted these days. He even climbed into Harry's dreams, though they usually involved him falling off of something before Harry could reach him and he would end up waking up in a cold sweat and he would frantically check the map to assure himself that Draco was indeed safe and a mere twenty feet away and a couple floors up.

But it wasn't the usual burning obsession fueled by morbid curiosity that was keeping Malfoy on his mind. The more Harry reflected, he could detect a glimmer of something deeper that just curiosity whenever he watched Malfoy surreptitiously over meals, or during classes when Draco's head would droop lower and lower on his palm until he shook himself out of it or Zabini would smack him and he seemed to wake up. Something that felt like concern, laced with something deeper and scarier that made Harry think of Draco's collarbones and made him blush and shove the thought back where it came from.

Though curiosity was a huge part in it. Hermione had continued with her furious search to explain the mysterious deaths of Death Eaters, though her search had come up empty. She had been hinting to Harry that Draco might have some answers, though these days Draco looked close to death himself. His appearance had continued to deteriorate, with permanent dark shadows underneath his overly bright gray eyes and the constant air of fatigue. Harry actually considered asking Zabini or Pansy if he was getting any sleep at all, but they were always around him, making him focus on eating or whatever he was doing or just in his close enough proximity that he would be overhear. His attitude had also taken a turn for the worst. He seemed to snap at everything said and on Tuesday he and Pansy had gotten into a row over something stupid that ended with half the common room completely destroyed.

Harry had only had one opportunity to actually talk to him, though when he asked Draco if he was okay he had predictably stated that he was fine and gaped indignantly at him when he had suggested that he get more sleep. Harry somehow knew sleeping was important in all this, and there was a reason Draco wasn't anymore, he just hadn't gotten around to figuring that out yet.

Or the reason why when he had tried talking to him he had spent the majority of his time staring at Draco's profile, tracing it down his straight nose to the dip in his throat where his collarbones met; Or the reason he hadn't touched his invisibility cloak since that night in the tower, too afraid to check if the heady scent of Draco still lingered and a little wary of his own reaction if it was.

Harry was startled out of his musings at the sound of a girls laugh, followed by a swear and a door slamming and light footsteps descending the staircase to his left, leading up to the Gryffindor and Hufflepuff boys dorms. Harry looked around to see Ginny tromp into the common room, a grin on her face and a red and gold scarf clutched in her hands. She stopped short when she saw Harry sitting there and her smile widened, her direction changing so she neared Harry's armchair.

"Harry." She greeted, throwing herself down in the chair next to him and shoving the scarf into her bag. "What are you doing here all alone?"

"I could ask you the same thing." Harry countered, lazily raising a finger to point at Ginny. "If I remember rightly Miss Weasley you are not allowed in this tower."

"I was with Dean." Ginny answered unabashedly, looking completely shameless as she smiled at him. "Because you see Harry, some of us have social lives, like Ron and Hermione, who just so happen to be-"

"Okay okay, I get it Gin." Harry cut her off, not wanting to listen to Ginny's recap of his two best friends extracurricular activities.

Ginny laughed loudly and sighed throwing her feet up onto the foot rest in front of her. She pulled out her wand and relit the fire, bathing Harry in its warmth.

"So what are you doing here alone, besides the obvious avoiding your room?" Ginny asked.

Harry shrugged, "Just thinking."

Ginny nodded slowly, "Just thinking." She repeated, staring into the fire before turning back to him and reaching out with one of her feet to nudge Harry's thigh. "You seemed to be doing a lot of that lately." She said.

"So?" He said, suspicion creeping up on him as he looked at her out of the corner of his eye.

"Ron asked me to talk to you." she said almost guiltily, nudging him with her foot again. "Says you've been a bit out of sorts."

Harry groaned. "Nosy git." He mumbled moodily. One of the things he liked most about Ginny was that she didn't pry, something that obviously wasn't the case now that Ron had recruited her.

"Oh come off it, he's worried about you." Ginny admonished, sitting up to watch him properly. "Say's you're going all off on him like two years ago when you went crazy over Malfoy."

A warm blush was suddenly creeping up Harry's throat at Ginny's words and he vehemently hoped that she couldn't see it in the low light.

"But then he said that it might also be that you've got your eyes on some girl, would make sense with all the staring off into the distance and whatnot, says you look a bit love struck." Ginny continued, seemingly oblivious to Harry's discomfort.

"It's not a girl." Harry said immediately, slapping himself mentally a split second later as he realized he had only left Ginny with one option.

One that she seemed to grab on too instantly.

Ginny went silent for a second before her eyes lit up with understanding and she turned to him slowly with wide grin on her face. "Oh, Harry," She started gleefully before Harry sat up and cut her off, his throat tight with panic.

"No, no, oh Harry nothing!" Harry hissed, pointing at her again. "Shut up Ginny and wipe that shit eating grin off your face-"

"Harry you like Malfoy!" Ginny whispered, jumping out of her chair and nearly tripping over herself to get away as Harry sprang up and sputtered.

"No! no I never said that, Gin would you please keep your voice down?" Harry whispered desperately while debating whether or not to cast a Silencing Charm on her to keep her from alerting the entire tower.

Ginny snorted, and raised an eyebrow at his denial. "I kind of always figured you were bent. It's about time you've admitted to actually liking anyone."

"Ginny would you please just shut up, wait, oi!" Harry snapped indignantly, tearing his hands from hers. "What do you mean you always thought?"

She rolled her eyes. "I spend forever and a bloody day to get your attention away from stalking Malfoy, then you dump me for some bullshit noble reason like my safety?"

"It was for your safety!" Harry said.

"Don't play with me Harry. You asked, I answered," she said, reaching for his hand again. "Iit all works out since Malfoy's as bent as they come-"

"He's bent?" Harry cut her off, this piece of information catching his interest far more than it rightfully should have.

"Everyone knows that. It's why Parkinson turned into even more of an intolerable nightmarish bitch bout a year ago when she found out he wasn't going to sleep with her."

"Oh." Harry said, his head suddenly buzzing with possibilities he had never even dreamed up before.

"So. Why do you seem so flustered about it?" Ginny pushed.

"I never really thought about it until you said it just now." Harry answered honestly. "And also Ginny lets not forget that he hates me."

"Most of his hate seems to be evenly distributed amongst the general population of the school, though its been mostly directed at Parkinson these days," Ginny said evenly, "if I'm correct about the cause of the destruction of your common room a couple days ago."

"How often are you in here?" Harry asked.

"More often than I probably should be," Ginny answered with a shrug. "Speaking of which..." She cast a quick tempus charm and swore. "Shit, curfew. Find me later Harry," She raised herself on her toes and kissed his cheek. "We'll talk about you snogging Malfoy later-"

"Shut up Gin, and you cant tell Ron!" Harry called after her as she climbed through the portrait hole.

"I wont," she called back, shaking her head exasperatedly as the portrait closed behind her.

Harry waited until the last of Ginny's red hair disappeared from view and the portrait slammed shut before allowing himself to flop back down on his armchair, staring right back into the fire and desperately willing the voices in his head buzzing with ideas planted by Ginny's words to shut the fuck up.

* * *

As was expected, Harry couldn't sleep.

He was seriously considering going to Gryffindor Tower and waking Ginny up to hex her for saying all these things, things that had Harry sitting cross-legged on his bed, enviously listening to Ron snore, as sleep eluded him.

He couldn't like Malfoy. He was Draco bloody fucking Malfoy. The same arrogant prick that had tormented Harry for the better part of six years, the same pointy blonde ferret who grated on Harry's nerves just by existing.

He didn't even want to think about it, to even entertain the errant thoughts buzzing around his head that whispered of possibilities. He didn't even like blokes. Granted his luck with girls was dismal to say the least (with the exception of Ginny), but that didn't automatically mean he liked men, did it?

Harry shifted uncomfortably, sighing deeply and hesitantly, letting his mind wander, trying to imagine kissing another guy. A blurry and off focus image came to mind, him and some faceless guy. Harry shook his head. It didn't really sit quite right with him, it would just be awkward, where would you put things? Who decided?

Harry groaned, cursing Ginny from here to hell before thinking a hasty fuck it and letting his imagination go again, this time replacing the faceless guy with Draco.

Harry's mind went wild, immediately going into overdrive with an image of him pining Draco against a wall, kissing him furiously, the scowl and sleepiness wiped from Draco's face and replaced with a look of sheer ecstasy as Harry moved lower to lick those damned collarbones-

Harry forced himself out of it, his heart thumping with panic and his throat tight for some reason. Why the flying fuck did he enjoy that so much? He didn't even want to listen to the tiny voice in his head that said Ginny might be right. He couldn't be gay. He just wasn't.

Eager for a distraction and desperate for some sleep, if for anything a few hours peace from his own head, he reached over the side of his bed and pulled out the map, already activated, and opened it, his eyes scanning the tower for Draco's name. it had become somewhat of a habit with Harry, to check the map before falling asleep every night, just to check if the git decided to try and jump off anything else tonight. He had been staying relatively put for the past few days, though it wasn't enough to make Harry stop checking.

Harry's eyes landed on Draco's room, reading over the tiny labels reading Blaise Zabini and Theodore Nott unmoving on either sides of the room, his heart picking up speed when he realized Draco wasn't in the room. He followed the staircase down from their room and finally found him, the tiny dot labeled Draco Malfoy heading slowly down the staircase, almost at the common room.

Once again, without thinking, Harry had leapt out of bed, grabbed his wand and invisibility cloak and was out of his dorm, shutting the door quietly so not to wake Ron. He descended the staircase two steps at a time, landing badly on the common room level and looking up, his invisibility cloak half around his shoulders.

He froze when he found Draco, staring at him with wide and tired eyes, a thick black dressing gown wrapped around him and a book in his hand, very clearly awake.

Harry could feel his face heat up, realizing he must have made a lot of noise tromping up the stairs and now he was just standing there, half of himself invisible with the panic no doubt still visible on his face.

It also didn't help that the object of his mental turmoil was standing about ten feet away staring at him like he was crazy.

He and Draco stood there for a bout a minute, staring each other down until Harry finally decided to speak. "Hi." He said, almost breathlessly, inwardly cringing at how he sounded.

Draco didn't answer immediately, instead choosing to elegantly quirk an eyebrow at Harry and he realized he was still invisible. Draco waited until Harry had yanked off his cloak and balled it up in his hands. "Hello Potter." He said evenly.

"Where are you going?" Harry asked slowly, still gauging the waters.

Draco's eyes narrowed almost imperceptibly, as though he was measuring up Harry, trying to see just what he was playing at. "I could ask the same thing Potter." He answered slowly, the hint of his usual drawl gone from his voice.

"I asked you first." Harry said back immediately, knowing it was immature but not really caring, especially when it worked. Draco sighed and sat down on the couch with a light shrug as he curled his feet up under him.

"Cant sleep." He answered quietly with none of his usual bite. Harry took it as a green light and edged towards him, slowly sinking down on the other side of the couch and trying to ignore the gray eyes on him, measuring his every move.

"Why not?" Harry asked, still cautious with his words. These days it wasn't unusual for Draco to snap and end up throwing whatever was in his hands at even his closest friends, much less Harry.

Draco seemed to be thinking along the same lines; his eyebrows contracted slightly, as though he really couldn't figure out an answer to Harry's question. He bit down on his lip, momentarily distracting Harry until he looked up at him and answered. "Don't know." He finally said, looking down and opening the book on his lap, looking down at it.

Harry narrowed his eyes at him. He was hiding something, he was almost sure of it, though he wasn't sure how to go about asking this. He continued to watch Draco read until the faintest line of irritation began to form on Draco's forehead and he looked up at Harry through his hair, his eyes hard suddenly. "What?" he snapped, more malice this time.

"Why haven't you been sleeping?" Harry blurted out suddenly, semi-shocked by his own nerve. There was that fabled Gryffindor courage for you.

Draco's eyes widened for a split second before his mask of indifference slid on as well as it could through his fatigue. "Overstepping your boundaries a bit there aren't you Potter?" He asked waspishly.

"Since when do we have boundaries?" Harry asked.

"Since we don't talk." Draco snapped back, slamming the book and clutching it with both hands, clearly riling himself up for an argument.

"Well if we don't talk, then we shouldn't really have boundaries should we?" Harry asked cheekily, hoping he could bug Draco enough so he would end up just blurting out whatever he wanted to hear, a technique he usually used on Hermione whenever he needed help in class.

It seemed to be working and Draco's hands tightened on the book. "I don't want to talk about it," he spat at Harry through gritted teeth, opening the book back up at random and looking back down.

Harry shrugged, his confidence on his upper hand in the situation spurring him to scoot minutely closer, making Draco look up warily. "What?" he said again with more agitation.

"What do you think about all the dead Death Eaters?" Harry asked, leaning away as he watched Draco's knuckles turn white on his book, his jaw clenching slightly and his eyes growing hard. "I don't want to talk about that either," Draco said, his voice wavering slightly in his fight to keep himself controlled.

"Okay." Harry said easily enough, biting back a grin when his causal tone seemed to piss Draco off even more.

Harry could practically taste the agitation rolling off of Draco in waves and he could sense that he was close to breaking him.

He stayed quiet for a second, eyeing Draco up, watching how random pieces of his fringe caught in his eyelashes, the way his eyes ran over the page, the way his teeth caught on his lower lip, the way his knuckles slowly returned to their normal color as they relaxed their tight grip on the book, the way his left arm was held awkwardly away from his body…

Harry's mind was suddenly taken back to the reason Draco was hacked off with him in the first place, the detention, whatever it was that he had with him when he came back, the way Draco had screamed and cursed at him when Harry had grabbed his arm-

His left arm.

It all seemed to fall into place in Harry's mind and turned back to Draco, now studying the careful way his bony arm was held away from his body, the way he held it so the inside of his sleeve didn't touch it directly.

Harry pursed his mouth slightly, readying himself for whatever reaction his next question would evoke and dove right into it. "What's wrong with your arm Malfoy?"

Harry flinched instantly at the way Draco's hands tightened on the book, but he had enough sense to look at his face first. Instead of the rage he had been expecting, the wide gray eyes widened in pure fear for a split second before he lowered them, making him look vulnerable and somehow younger.

"N-nothing." Draco stuttered, not quite moving quick enough to stop the stammer that reached his voice or the way his right arm instinctively reached for his left.

Harry raised himself off the couch slowly, turning to face Draco with his hands up. "Seriously Malfoy what is it? You scream at me for touching it now you're acting like I slapped you-"

"Nothing Potter!" Draco said loudly, standing as well and backing away from Harry slowly, his hand reaching for his pocket as Harry advanced.

"I'm not gonna bite Malfoy just tell me what's wrong with your fucking arm-"

"Nothing!" Draco nearly shrieked, his wand halfway out of his pocket. Harry was quicker, advancing on the blonde and physically snatching Draco's wand out of his hand, earning an outraged cry as he grabbed Draco's bony wrist, pulling him close even as Draco struggled against him.

"Unhand me you Gryffindor Neanderthal!" Draco snapped, trying to yank himself out of Harry's grip. But Harry was stronger, faster and wasn't crippled by stress and fatigue and easily over powered Draco, easily fitting him into his grip and wresting up the sleeve of his dressing gown-

And nearly dropping Draco on his arse as he released him in revulsion and shock. Draco's arm was a mangled mess, his dark tattoo standing out amidst a maze of bruises and torn skin that looked more irritated now that Harry had been manhandling him.

Draco stood up shakily, yanking the sleeve back down with a wince as he glared at Harry. "Happy now Potter?" Draco said, his voice shaking with rage and what sounded like fear.

"What the fuck Malfoy?" Harry sputtered. "Why is your Mark all fucked up?"

Draco flinched at the mention of the Mark, as though he didn't like to be reminded that it was there. He glared for another second at Harry, looking as though he wanted to keep fighting, to keep screaming, but then he almost deflated, literally shrinking a few inches as he sunk in on himself and sat back down on the couch with his head in his hands, sitting perfectly still until Harry moved back to his spot on the other side.

"Malfoy?"

"You know why." Draco said quietly, the fight seeming to leave him the way it did after Filch almost caught them on the tower. "You know why, and you know about the dead Death Eaters and you know about the fucking Quidditch game and the other night and you know and are you ever going to just bugger the fuck on out of my life and leave me alone!" Draco's voice escalated until he was nearly shouting again and the book finally left his hand, sailing through the air and missing Harry's head by inches. Harry ducked and was about to snap back, but Draco kept shouting.

"And if you know, why cant you just leave me alone? Why cant you just let it do whatever it wants or until my fucking arm falls off? Or until-"

"Malfoy!" Harry finally cut him off, Malfoy stopping with his mouth still open so he gaped at Harry like a goldfish. "Calm the fuck down."

For once in what was probably his life, Draco didn't argue. He put his head back in his hands, rubbing his temples and running a hand through his too long hair and sighing heavily.

"I'm sorry." Harry said, not even pausing to think of how fucking weird the situation suddenly became.

"I'm so fucking tired." Draco mumbled into his hands.

Harry didn't answer, simply nodding at him and letting him sit in silence. Draco seemed grateful enough, resting his elbow on the armrest and leaning his head in his palm.

Harry didn't realize he had fallen asleep. He had been watching Draco breath, trying his hardest to process what exactly what had happened when he had nodded off. He sat up, blinking blearily, looking around for Draco, half expecting him to be gone, having gone off to bed or something. He was mildly surprised to see that Draco was still there, draped over the other side of the couch.

Harry was knackered, and he figured it rude to leave Malfoy asleep alone on the couch if he was going to bed. He reached over and prodded Draco's bony shoulder.

"Malfoy." Harry said, poking him again. Malfoy didn't move, he seemed to be deeply asleep, one arm thrown over his face. "Malfoy," Harry said again, louder this time, grasping the bony shoulder to shake Draco awake.

Draco rolled over, his hair falling out of his face and Harry's stomach dropped.

Draco's lips were a pale blue, and a faint purple flush was creeping up the sides of Draco's face.

He wasn't breathing.

Harry scrambled up, kneeling over Draco and grasping his shoulders and shaking him roughly. "Malfoy! Draco! Fucking breathe!"

Draco's head lolled back heavily, the only sign of movement the subtle twitch of his eye's beneath the lids. His face was turning a deeper purple, his throat constriction as his body fought for air.

Harry was nearly beside himself with panic. He shook Draco with everything he had, trying desperately to wake him up, to make him breathe, to make him stop turning such frightening colors of blue-

"Draco, Christ, Wake the fuck up! Draco please!" Harry grabbed Draco's face, shaking him harder. Draco's chest began to spasm, the lack of air taking its toll. Harry could feel Draco's heartbeat pounding against him, fighting to keep Draco alive.

Grasping at his last straw, Harry's eyes filling with tears of desperation and fear, Harry released Draco, cringing at the heavy way Draco's frail body slumped back against the couch and he searched frantically for his wand.

A slight gurgle was beginning to emit from Draco and he couldn't find his wand, he thrust his hand under the couch, searching for the piece of wood. he wasn't going to make it, Draco was going to die right here in front of him and he didn't do a damn thing about it-

Harry's fingers finally closed around a wand and he pulled it out. It wasn't his, but Draco's shorter one. It seemed to remember him, it felt right in his hands as he stood, pointing the want directly between Draco's eyes and gasping "Ennervate!"

At once Draco's eyes flew open and he sucked in a harsh and shaky breath, his chest heaving as he sat up, clutching at his throat and breathing heavily, his eyes wide with fear as he fixed them on Harry, the color slowly draining from his face.

* * *

hi:) so im sorry if im taking forever, the other day i was looking and realized ive been working on this for the better part of a year, and theres still a shit load left, so im gonna haul my ass on this, and to make it up to you, heres a five thousand word chapter:) enjoy


	10. Closer

"His Mark?" Hermione whispered, looking revolted as she flipped through _Magick Moste Evile, _not even paying attention to the pages she passed.

Harry nodded, swallowing heavily. "I think that's what it is, whatever's making the Death Eaters kill themselves, and what's making Malfoy attempt it. That's why he cant sleep. it's the Dark Mark" Harry had been up for the rest of the night the night before after waking Draco, sitting and staring into the fire long after Draco had fled upstairs. It had finally clicked for him.

"But, Harry," Hermione started, her eyebrows contorting as her teeth worried her lower lip, "That's impossible."

"What do you mean its impossible?" Harry asked, he could honestly think of no other answer.

"The Dark Mark is branded with a curse," She answered, realizing she had reached the end of the book and began flipping back to her spot with a sound of annoyance, stopping on _Brands and Burns_, "And once the wizard who cast that curse is dead, then the spell is immediately deactivated. We all saw you kill Voldemort Harry, by magic law, whatever curse he cast on the Marks should have dissipated, especially by now."

Harry shook his head. It sounded like it made sense to him, too much sense to be impossible. "Hermione you didn't see his arm, its completely fucked up, like, bad, its burned." Harry's stomach did an unpleasant flip at the memory of Draco's mangled arm, made worse by him.

"Burned?" Hermione asked, her eyes narrowing curiously.

"Yeah," Harry answered. "The outline of the Mark is burning into his skin, like it's not a tattoo, more like a brand."

"Outline?" Hermione asked again, shoving the huge book away from her and picking up a smaller volume beneath it and flipping through it furiously.

"what?" Harry asked, leaning forward to read over Hermione's arm.

"Well, it was nearly impossible to find any information on the curse the Mark is branded with, since it was invented in the last century, but there was a small section here." Hermione said, landing on a page and running her finger down the page. "_Now that the Dark Lord has fallen _(Harry Potter, pg.510) _and most of his followers _(Death Eaters, pg. 456) _are available for questioning, it has been learned that once the wizard who cast the Mark has gone, the magic in the brand has since been deactivated, so to speak; the once dark outline of the Mark has faded to a pinkish red hue, more reminiscent of a scar than a Mark." _Hermione finished reading, putting the book down and looking at Harry. "Did it look more like that?" She asked. "Like a scar?"

"No," Harry shook his head. "It was dark, like burned, it wasn't faded at all."

"That's fascinating," Hermione murmured, flipping through the smaller volume to another spot marked with a red ribbon. "It must be some form of a residual curse, something immune to the death of its caster, but," She stopped, her teeth worrying her lower lip, "I've never heard of anything like that."

"Maybe its working the way my scar was." Harry suggested.

"Maybe," Hermione answered. "Just a different emotion fueling it."

Harry frowned, his feeling of elation at having figured something out before Hermione dissipating as the image of Draco's face, blue from lack of air, swam in front of his eyes. "What's going to happen to Malfoy then?" He asked quietly.

Hermione bit her lip again as various possibilities of Draco's fate flitted through her mind. "I don't really know." She answered. "He's going to have to sleep eventually, the effects of sleep depravation are hell on the body."

Harry drew a blank, having never had a reason to know the effects of sleep depravation. It must have shown on his face because she sighed, pulling another small volume and opening it.

"If he stays awake, eventually his mind is going to begin shutting down," Hermione said, "They're called mini naps, he's going to fall asleep in spurts of seconds, hallucinations, manifestations of his subconscious, in this case the curse, until he falls into a coma." Hermione stopped, suddenly fearful. "He never would wake up from that. He'd live, but the curse, would kill him."

"Could the hallucinations kill him?" Harry asked, fear creeping into his throat for some reason he couldn't quite place.

"If the curse is strong enough, which we've learned it is." Hermione answered, still reading.

"Can we stop it?" Harry asked, Hermione's uncertainty with the situation unsettling him more than he could understand why.

Hermione seemed to catch on too, her eyes narrowing at him in thought before turning back to her book. "I don't know, if there was a way to reverse the curse, but the only way to figure it out would be to dissect the curse by studying it, and Merlin knows that's some advanced magic."

"And I doubt there's any way he'd let you look at it." Harry said as an afterthought as the bell for dinner sounded. He stood, picking up Hermione's bag and holding it for her as she shoved the books into it haphazardly and slinging it over her shoulder when she finished.

"No, he doesn't seem to do much anything anymore." Hermione mused quietly. She hoisted the large book into her arms again and they dove into a crowd of sixth years coming from downstairs to the great hall. They finally managed to push their way in. They found Ron and Hermione sat next to him, kissing his cheek and placing her book in front of her.

Ron raised his eyebrows at the book before shaking his head and taking another bite from the mountain of food in front of him before seeming to remember something and looking up at Harry with large eyes.

"Did you hear?" He asked Harry excitedly.

"What?" Harry asked, reaching across to grab a roll and shoving it into his mouth.

"Ginny and Dean are back together." Ron squinted his eyes down the table where they sat, Ginny backwards in her seat with Deans arms around her.

"I know." Harry said around his mouthful of bread. He swallowed with difficulty and turned back to Ron. "So?'

"How does that not bother you?" Ron asked, looking incredulous. "I was banking on you and her getting back together by now."

"Weren't you against the whole me and Ginny thing to begin with?" Harry asked, stalling for time when Ron would surely ask why he wasn't interested in Ginny anymore.

"Well yeah, but now I'm somewhat for it." Ron said as he threw a dirty look to his sister. "Listening to him and Seamus talk about girls isn't nearly so fun when my sisters involved."

"Talk about girls?" Hermione asked pointedly, turning to Ron and smirking when he blushed.

"Well, I am a man, with needs." He said with as much dignity as he could, ignoring Hermione's laugh and turning back to Harry. "And at least when you were dating her I never had to hear about all the crazy shit you did."

Harry shrugged.

* * *

The rain finally stopped the next morning.

Harry smiled when he woke up and noticed actual sunlight streaming into his room. They could finally have Quidditch practice again and the thought had left him in an unusually good mood that morning.

"Oi, wake up!" He said, throwing his pillow across the room to Ron's bed, smacking him directly in the face and grinning when he groaned.

"What" Ron grumbled, poking his head out from under his pillow.

"Sunlight." Harry explained with a grin, laughing when Ron flopped back down with another groan.

Harry's good mood lasted all the way down to the great hall when he finally managed to drag Ron downstairs for breakfast. They found Hermione seated at the end of the table, a bowl of porridge abandoned at her side as she poured over the morning paper.

"Post finally come at the right time?" Harry asked, sitting across from her and grabbing a piece of toast.

"yes, and another Death Eater died last night." she said with no preamble whatsoever, flipping the paper over so he could read.

" Another grisly discovery was discovered this morning at Azkaban wizarding prison when prison guards made their morning rounds and found the body of Mulciber Sr. No details have been released regarding his death except for the grisly calling card of a missing Dark Mark. Mulciber was a convicted Death Eater scheduled to be kissed. No further investigation will be conducted.

"Is it just me, or are all these reports sounding the same to you?" Harry asked her when he finished the article.

"They are suspiciously similar," Hermione agreed; folding the paper back and turning to her now cold porridge. "It doesn't seem like the ministry doesn't seem to care about these Deaths in the slightest."

Harry bit his lip, a thought coming to him. "Have you noticed how another one dies every time Malfoy doesn't?"

Hermione froze, a spoonful halfway to her mouth as her eyes widened and she dropped her spoon, picking up her bag.

"Of course!" she whispered, standing and kissing the top of Ron's head. " Library." she said in quick explanation before dashing off.

Ron watched her go before looking back at Harry, who shrugged and cocked his head at Hermione's retreating form. Ron nodded, sent Harry a two fingered salute and followed his girlfriend.

Harry watched Ron go, barely turning back to his toast before someone collided with him and knocked his toast out of his hand.

"Hello." Ginny chirped with a smile.

Harry scowled at her, picking up his toast. "Hi Gin."

"Please tell me there's practice tonight?" she asked somewhat desperately. "I've been driving myself out of my mind with boredom."

"I hear you." Harry conceded. "Yeah, starts after dinner."

"Great." Ginny grinned at him before looking across the hall with a frown. "Where's your boyfriend?"

Harry immediately turned to the Slytherin table before catching her wording and meeting her smirk with a dirty look. " I don't know." he answered defensively, glaring as Ginny laughed and stood, stealing his toast and walking back down the table.

Harry looked back to the Slytherin table, scanning it quickly and frowning. Where was Malfoy?

He stood, forgetting that he hadn't eaten at all and leaving the hall, pulling the map out of his pocket and tapping it.

" I solemnly swear that I am up to no good."

He stopped in the corridor, moving to the side to avoid a crowd of third year Ravenclaws passing him as he scanned the map furiously, glad Ron left with Hermione and that he avoided the you're obsessed with Malfoy speech.

He finally found the tiny labeled dot, moving around an abandoned classroom on the fourth floor. Draco was alone, and pacing by the look of it.

Harry cleared the map, pocketed it and took off at a jog.

* * *

Fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck

Draco slammed his fist into the wall, barely registering the pain in his hand before turning off the wall and pacing back to the other side of the room he had been pacing all night. He hadnt slept. He was so fucking tired.

After he had been yanked from his nightmare to be greeted with the image of a frantic looking Harry Potter pointing his wand directly between his eyes, something else to keep him awake, he had fled, running up to his room to get dressed and set off into the castle, finally finding this abandoned room at around four in the morning and had been pacing since.

Then he heard them talking as two first year fucks passed his door. Mulciber was dead. Another fucking one was dead after Potter saved his life again. They just kept dying.

The tears of exhaustion, fear and defeat finally spilled over Draco's eyes and he slammed his other fist into the wall again.

Fuck.

He finally slumped against a wall, sliding down and covering his face with his shaking hands. He wanted to sleep. To just sleep and wake up and find that it was all just another fucked up dream.

He could feel the sobs creeping up his throat, he could feel himself start to completely lose it as the door of his classroom swung open.

* * *

Harry reached the door where Draco was, pausing when he heard a thud against the wall before pushing the door open, finding Draco seated next to the door, curled up on himself and sobbing.

Harry froze. The last time he had come across Draco crying he had cursed him, the memory still brought a heavy twist of guilt to Harry when he thought of it. He found that now he had no idea what to do with a crying Draco Malfoy and was lost for a second before Draco looked up at Harry with bloodshot eyes and tears still coursing down his face.

Harry didn't move for a beat, expecting Draco to yell at him to fuck off or curse him, but he did neither, merely put his blond head down back into his arms and releasing a shaking breath.

"Go away Potter." he stuttered, his shoulders still shaking heavily.

Harry bit his lip, Hermione's words about the curse and Ginny's words about Draco buzzing in his head as he knelt down in front of Draco. " I need to talk to you." Harry finally said.

" I don't want to talk to you." Draco said heavily, no fight in his voice whatsoever even as his sobbing subsided slightly.

"Your mark-"

"What about it?" Draco snapped, his voice hitching as he looked up at him, his grey eyes swimming in tears.

Harry took a breath, steadying himself before speaking again. " Malfoy Mulciber died this morning and-"

" I know."

"And," Harry continued, letting the interruption pass. " I know it's your mark, and-"

" And what?" Draco finally seemed to stop crying, his eyes hard as he met Harry's eyes. " it's going to kill me."

" it doesn't have to-" Harry started desperately.

"are you going to save me Potter?" Draco asked, suddenly standing and scaring Harry for a second before he stood too. "is that it?" his voice was dripping with sarcasm and still trembled slightly.

Harry had no answer for him, he suddenly realized he didn't know what he had planned to say to Draco when he came looking for him. He watched Draco watch him, his shoulders heaving an his jaw tense, blond hair falling ungracefully between heavy eyes.

Harry's mental image from the night before filled his head again, a blush crawling up his face as he eyed up Draco.

Draco's eye brows furrowed in confusion as Harry stood still in front of him. "What Potter?" he snapped.

He wasn't gay. He didn't like Malfoy. He wasn't gay. He didn't like Malfoy.

The thought repeated itself over and over in Harry's head frantically, trying to make himself believe it even as his feet moved forward, his body moving on its own as e reached out, taking Draco's face in his hands and kissing him square on the mouth.


	11. Hallucinations and Sleep

I'm not gay. I don't like Malfoy. I'm not gay.

The words repeated themselves repeatedly in Harry's head, but the blood keeping his head straight took a deliberate dive south as his hands tightened their grip on Draco and kissed him harder, his heart pounding as he felt two shaking hands find his waist and the gentle push that meant Draco was kissing him back.

Fuck it, Harry thought as his fingers twisted into Draco's white hair and he felt the thud that was Draco's back hitting the wall.

The wall next to the open door.

Harry's heart suddenly dropped into his stomach and he released Draco with trembling hands, his front still pressed against him and Draco's pale face two inches in front of his.

Harry stared deep into Draco's terrified grey eyes, searching for the word or the action that was in the slightest way appropriate for the situation, but he could find none. He opened and closed his mouth a couple of times, waiting for Draco to move, to speak, to do bloody something because his bottom lip was still wet and his eyes were still terrified and it was making Harry want to kiss him again and again-

The bell for classes tolled and Draco flinched in Harry's arms, seeming to notice the open door and he met Harry's eyes at the sound of approaching students.

Harry moved away from Draco slowly, his fingers lingering on his shoulders slightly and he knelt slowly to pick up his bag, watching Draco mirror him cautiously. They stood and watched each other for a beat before Draco's face broke and he blinked and swung out the door, effortlessly blending into the crowd and Harry quickly lost him.

Harry stood there for a second in a daze, the sweet taste of sugar and Draco in his mouth and his robes rumpled by Draco's fingers. The second bell had rang once again and he started , forcing his feet to move and he jogged his way upstairs, barely sitting down into his seat in Charms next to Hermione as the late bell rung and all the doors magically locked themselves.

"I bloody hate that new defense magic on the fucking doors." Harry swore under his breath as he pulled his book out if his bag.

"Well at least it taught you to quit being tardy so often." Hermione snipped back at him with annoyance, rolling her eyes at him when he shot her a dirty look. " I swear if I didn't know any better id say you were off stalking Malfoy again."

Harry felt his face flare up into a violent blush at Hermione's words and he thanked whatever blessed name that the lights dimmed at that exact moment, and the board lit up and Hermione began to write.

* * *

"What's up with you?" Pansy demanded in a whisper, her eyes narrowed at Draco across the table and her quill pointed at him menacingly.

Draco ignored her once again, trying his hardest to listen as Professor Mycroft, the new teacher they found to teach Muggle Studies. As part of their probationary return to Hogwarts, all the Slytherins had to now take a Muggle Studies class in the hopes that it would temper their pure blood upbringing and way of thinking. Draco thought the class was complete shit, and he could honestly give two fucks about whenever the hell a microwave or whatever was invented or by whom, but he wasn't about to make waves about it. If his father knew he would have had Draco removed at once, after declaring the school board ridiculous for such protocol.

But his father was in prison, or dead for all Draco knew. He might find his fathers name in a tiny forgotten column in the back of the Prophet any morning now.

"Hey!" Pansy's whispered demand broke through Draco's thought process and he glared at her. His hands were still shaking, and he knew he must look a fright, but as far as he was concerned it was absolutely none of Pansy's business what was up with him.

"What?" he mouthed back irritably. He didn't want to talk to pansy. He didn't want to talk to anybody, except maybe Potter, but only to slap his stupid face before kissing him again.

Draco's hands began to shake again as the thought of Harry Potter drifted across his mind. Harry fucking Potter. Who did the prat think he was anyways? Following Draco around all over again ad nosing his way back into Draco's life only to figure out everything, again, and then go and do something like snog the living daylights out of him. Not that Draco wasnt thrilled that his long unrequited crush had finally come to some sort of fucked up resolve but still what the fuck.

"Whats your problem?" Pansy demanded. "You look like seeing ghosts isnt a regular thing."

"Nothing!" Draco hissed back at her.

"Liar."

"Am not."

"Are too."

"Silence!" Professor Mycroft suddenly snapped at the pair of them, making Pansy jump and Draco snigger. Mycroft glared at them for another second before going on about what ever it was they were discussing, Draco scowling at Pansy as he realized he had missed a good five minutes worth of notes.

Fuck it, he though tiredly and set his quill down, running a hand through his too long hair and sighing when a couple of white strands came out with his hand. He needed sleep, he was so tired now he was beginning to think he would die of exhaustion before the curse on his arm got to him.

Draco's stomache swooped in fear as he remembered Potter's words about the curse. How did he even know so much about it? Probably Grangers doing, researching insufferable know it all she was, but Potters words struck him, what did he mean it didnt have to kill him? There was obviously no way around it, all the Death Eaters were dying and he had made several attempts as it was, it was impossible to deter the course of the curse if it had been proven so successful thus far, right?

Draco leaned his head on his wrist, willing himself to stop trembling from a mixture of adrenaline, exhaustion and nerves. he was just so tired... Professor Mycrofts seedy voice was proving the perfect white noise in the background and he found his eyes growing heavier as he watched Professor Mycrofts heavy body move around the front of the room.

Suddenly the noise stopped, and Draco looked up in alarm. It was too quiet, he looked at Pansy, only to see that she was frozen in her expression, her hand still on her quill in the middle of writing in her sloppy chicken scratch handwriting, but she wasnt moving in the slightest.

Fuck fuck fuck, Draco thought as he frantically scanned the room, Blaise wasnt moving either, none of the students in the room were, and the only sound he could hear was the cressendo of his own heartbeat in his ears.

Wake up. Draco screamed at himself in his head. Wake up wake up wake up wake up-

"Draco"

Draco's head snapped back to the front, where Professor Mycroft was grinning eerily at him, his mouth stretched too wide and his eyes growing wider and darker behind his spectacles.

"No." Draco gasped out, standing and backing away through the sea of silent students. "No."

"Draco." Myscroft crooned again, taking a stumbling step towards him, his mouth and eyes looking like dinner plates in his pudgy face as they stretched further still.

Draco turned and stumbled, his back hitting the door of the classroom, his hands scrabbling for purchase on the handle, yanking it fruitlessly, the doors were locked.

"DRACO!" that one came out as a roar and Draco turned, pressing his back flat against the door as Professor Mycrofts head fell backwards, his now decapitated body falling forward and that huge fucking snake was rising out of him and fuck and he was finally going to die and that snake and it was coming closer and closer and fuck no no no

Draco's head smacked against the floor of the classroom harshly, white spots dancing in front of his eyes as they came into focus and saw Pansy and Professor Mycroft staring down at him.

"Bad dream Mr. Malfoy?" Professor Mycroft asked loftily, his bushy eyebrows raised and Pansy shook her head disapprovingly at him.

"Y-yes s-s-sir." Draco managed to stutter out, his heart still pounding and his body shaking violently. Pansy reached out a hand and he took it, standing shakily and feeling a blush climb up his throat as the rest of the class stared at him.

"I expect you to stay awake for the rest of the lesson, understood?"

Draco couldnt look at him. "Yes sir."

* * *

Harry paced, fiddling with his tie and tapping his wand against his thigh as he walked, ignoring the red and gold sparks that would occasionally shoot out of it and onto the carpet. Curfew was in ten minutes, and he knew Draco and Pansy studied in the library until it closed, so he was waiting.

He hadnt been able to focus on anything all day, durning Potions he had accidentally melted Slughorns ladle when he went to check his attempt at Polyjuice potion, despite already brewing the same thing six years prior, and in Transfiguration he had turned his hedgehog bright orange instead of turning it into a matchbox and had to deal with McGonnagal's disapproving looks and a depressing A instead of the E's he had grown accustomed to in transfiguration.

It was all Draco's fault. It was all his fault that he looked to damn fetching when he was in the process of a nervous breakdown and the bugger had even kissed Harry back, only adding to Harry's irritation.

Harry knew he was just being a brat. It wasnt Draco's fault at all, it was his own for listening to the tiny noise that had been growing increasingly louder over the weeks and kissing Draco.

Harry touched two fingers to his lips in thought. The sweet taste of sugar and Draco had lasted in his mouth for the entirety of his first lesson and even now as he licked his lips he could faintly taste the sweetness and his stomach swooped.

The toll of the warning bell rung through the castle, and Harry cast a quick tempus charm. It was now two minutes to curfew.

He stopped his pacing in front of the fire, watching it dance as his mind raced with thoughts of curses, Hermione's words this morning and the taste of sugar when the portrait swung open behind him.

He turned, his stomach performing another involuntary swoop as the familiar sight of Draco's white hair came into view as he stumbled clumsily through the portrait hole, leading a sleepy looking Pansy in by the hand. They didnt see him at first as Draco handed Pansy his book bag, nodding at something she asked before they leaned in that kissed each other on each cheek before Pansy waved and headed up the stairs. Draco watched her go before turning back and starting violently as he finally caught sight of Harry watching him.

"For fucks sake Potter dont do that!" He snapped, rubbing the side of his face where the barest hint of blonde stubble was beginning to appear.

"Stand here?" Harry offered.

"Scare me like that." Draco corrected him snidely, rolling his heavily lidded eyes and sitting down on the couch furthest from Harry.

Harry wasnt to be deterred however, and he pocketed his wand and followed Draco, sitting on the arm on the opposite side that Draco was on. Draco leaned his head back and closed his eyes, breathing deeply before finally turning to Harry.

"What Potter."

Harry opened his mouth, then shut it again. He had honestly no idea what to say to Draco, he had no idea where to even start, with the curse again or the kiss, or the fact that Draco looked worse than ever now, like he was literally on the edge of collapsing where he stood, erm, sat.

Harry instead decided to quit floundering and moved off the arm of the couch, sitting on the cushion next to the one Draco was seated on. From this distance he looked even worse, his eyes were glassy and his hair was falling in disarray over his forehead.

Draco turned his head to face Harry, his expression unmoving but his eyes growing slightly brighter in the dim light from the fire. Harry mirrored his pose, facing Draco but not making any move to get closer.

They sat and stared at each other for a beat before Draco finally spoke into the darkness.

"What are you doing?"

"I have no idea." Harry answered honestly, his heart fluttering in his throat like a trapped pixie.

Draco seemed to understand, he nodded slightly before turning away, his mouth parting and his hand coming up to cover his mouth as he yawned widely.

"You need to sleep Draco." Harry said.

"I cant." Draco answered almost sadly, his eyes closing and his head falling to face Harry's again. Was it Harry's imagination, or was he closer then he was before?

"You have to." Harry whispered, his own head moving closer to that white blonde one without him even realizing it.

"I'm falling asleep when i'm awake now." Draco murmured sleepily beside him, his forehead now almost touching Harry's.

"What do you mean?" Harry asked softly, closing the gap between them and touching his own cool forehead to Draco's much hotter one, it felt like he was running a fever.

"I fell asleep in class and another nightmare- I was awake the whole time-" Draco trailed off, nodding into sleep now as his face slipped another inch closer to Harry's.

Harry's stomach tightened in fear. Mini naps. Hermione was right.

"Sleep now, you're going to make yourself sick." Harry tried for calm, and luckily Draco missed the tremor of fear creeping into his voice.

"Cant sleep." Draco whispered, his nose touching Harry's now. Harry's heart was pounding so hard in his throat he was sure Draco could hear it. "I'll die."

"I'll watch you." Harry promised, no idea where any of this was coming from but he was slowly becoming intoxicated off the scent of sleep, boy and sugar that was coming from Draco. Even the tiny huffs of breath that were landing on Harry's chin smelled of sugar.

Draco nodded slightly, his nose rubbing against Harrys and his eyes fluttering shut. "Sleep-"

Harry watched Draco's closed eyes for a beat before giving in and closing the gap, pressing his mouth to Draco's in a nervous, delicious, fluttering kiss.

Harry barely registered Draco kissing him back before the mouth against his went slack and Draco's head fell forward onto his shoulder, the owner of the head fast asleep against Harry now.

Harry carefully rearranged Draco's slender frame so he would be comfortable and leaned back against the back of the couch. He promised Draco he would watch him, so he would.

Harry took out his wand and set it down next to Draco and reached up and began to tentatively card his fingers through the soft white hair. It was going to be a long night.


	12. Decisions and Death

Harry yawned widely, one hand coming up to rub his face and the other groping blindly for some toast, his search coming up empty and instead he put his head back down on his arms where it had been resting for the last five minutes, deciding that toast was the least of his worries.

He was exhausted. He had been true to his word and had stayed awake all night, watching Draco sleep soundly on his chest and gripping his wand in the other hand in a move that he told himself was just being paranoid but he didn't care. He couldn't explain the sudden ache in his chest when he thought of Draco, or the sudden and fierce surge of protectiveness that coursed through him as he watched the blonde sleep. It had all happened so fast, the jump in their relation ship from completely ignoring each other, to acting somewhat civil, to the kissing and staying awake, guarding the blondes life from himself, and just thinking about it made Harry's head hurt.

He had stayed seated on the couch for hours, occasionally letting his hand absently card through Draco's hair or digging through his bag for a book and balancing it on Draco's chest to skim through it by the dim light of the dying fire. At around six in the morning Draco had stirred, jerking awake in Harry's arms and blinking heavily, his tired grey eyes finally fixing on Harry before a tiny smile spread on his face, the realization he had slept through the night unharmed hitting him and he leant forward, kissing the side of Harry's mouth in a soft gesture that Harry barely had time to return before Draco was unfolding his long limbs from the couch and he rose to his feet, stretching his arms over his head and drawing Harry's eyes to the strip of white skin that was visible between his belt and jumper. Harry had begun to reach forward to run his fingers over the skin when Draco dropped his arms and reached down for his bag, slinging it over his shoulder and murmuring something about changing for class. Harry had managed to nod and watched Draco swing out of sight and up the stairs before he stood himself, stretching his own arms and heading up to his own room to change out of his sleep musty clothes. He had ended up passing out on his bed once he got upstairs, waking after an hour of sleep to find Ron's bed empty and only leaving him with ten fifteen minutes left of breakfast.

Which found Harry where he was now, half asleep on himself in the Great Hall, his hair standing up more than usual and his glasses slipping halfway down his nose as he nodded in and out of it. He didn't know how Draco was still alive, much less functioning the way he was. Harry had only missed one full nights sleep and he felt like he was going to die.

He had managed to find a comfortable spot for his head in his arms and his eyes had floated closed, sending him closer and closer to drifting off to sleep when a sudden thud in front of him shook him awake and scared the living shit out of him simultaneously.

"Fuck!" Harry swore, jumping up and hurriedly shoving his glasses back up his face, looking around wildly for the source of the noise when his eyes met Hermione's amused brown eyes looking down at him, the book she just slammed down in front of him still in her hands.

"What the hell 'Mione?" Harry grumbled, letting his head drop back down and groaning slightly.

"I should ask you the same thing, you look awful Harry." She answered, reaching forward and grasping his fringe to pull his head up so she could look him in the tired eyes. "Late night?"

"You could say that." Harry answered, batting her hand away but keeping his head up. He bit his lip, he didn't like keeping things from Ron and Hermione, but he wasn't sure how they would react if they knew the blonde reason Harry had been such a wreck these days.

"Well, I hope you at least finished your potions homework since you were up-"(Harry's heart sank. They had homework?) "And I did some more reading in _Magick Moste Evile _after I finished." She tapped the heavy book under her arms with her fingernail.

"And?" Harry asked, perking up slightly at the mention of the curse again.

"I cant seem to find anything else on it." She said, looking distraught, as though she couldn't believe the library had failed her. "Its clearly a hybrid curse of some sort, given the effects its having on Draco, but unless I can see the source of the curse for myself and examine it at length I'm absolutely lost." Hermione furrowed her eye brows and sighed, tucking a lock of loose hair back into the knot she had her hair in on top of her head.

Harry opened his mouth, ready to tell Hermione everything and that he might be able to talk Draco into letting her look at his arm when he was cut off by a shout and he looked towards the noise to see Ron and Seamus headed towards them with Dean and Ginny walking behind them.

"Oi, you look like cold shit mate." Ron told him bluntly as he slumped down next to Hermione, reaching for a muffin and glaring slightly as Dean and Ginny sat down on the other side of Harry. Harry smiled at Ginny and grinned at Dean when he sent a two fingered salute to Seamus, who was lingering near the Ravenclaw table. "You were passed out cold on your bed this morning still dressed and everything, what were doing last night?"

"Nothing." Harry answered quickly, feeling the blush creep up his neck at Ron's scrutiny. "Where were you guys? Class starts in four minutes and you just got here."

"Ronald didn't finish his homework so I made him go to the library first thing to finish it." Hermione answered icily, giving Ron a stern glance and he actually had the grace to look ashamed.

"Yeah, and Seamus and Dean hadn't finished either so we just threw the essays together real quick." Ron shrugged and bit down on his muffin.

"No, I threw your essay together and you copied my answers." Dean snapped playfully at Ron, throwing a fork at the redhead and receiving a handful of muffin crumbs in response.

"Oi! I did most of the work you wanker!" Ron snapped back indignantly, grabbing the fork and throwing it back at Dean.

Harry zoned out the sound of his friends fighting, smirking at Ginny when she rolled her eyes at him and turning his head to the hall, his eyes landing on the Slytherin table at the far end of the room and letting his eyes scan it, falling on a shock of familiar white hair at the far end. Draco sat with his head resting on his palm, moodily picking apart a muffin. Harry watched him as he watched Pansy next to him as she read the newspaper out loud. Draco seemed to feel his gaze, for his eyes raised up to meet Harry's across the hall, grey meeting green and Harry could see a faint pink blush climb up his neck as he shot Harry the tiniest of smiles.

Harry felt his own blush began to color his face as he sent back his own secret smile, feeling for all the world like he was fourteen all over again.

"Harry!" Ron's irritated snap brought Harry back to the table, his eyes tearing away from Draco to look as Ron watched him with narrowed eyes. "What's up with you?" He turned around, looking in the direction Harry had just been staring in. "Who are you having a staring contest with?"

Harry blushed harder, his mind scrambling for an excuse when Seamus came bounding back to the table, brandishing a newspaper in his hands.

"Another one's dead!" He called out in his thick Irish accent, slamming the paper down in front of Ron, getting the redheads full attention and flipping it over, pointing to a tiny column on the back page, a tiny picture of a familiar figure waving at him arrogantly.

"Another Death Eater's dead?" Hermione leaned into Ron's shoulder as she scanned the paper.

"Yeah, and you'll never guess who it is." Seamus waggled his eyebrows at Harry dramatically and widened his eyes.

"Who is it?' Ginny piped up, standing and leaning over Dean so she could try to read the paper upside down.

"_Azkaban Wizarding Prison awoke this morning to yet another gruesome discovery deep in the bowels of its maximum security _cells," Hermione read the article outloud for them all. "_When the body of infamous Death Eater and former prominent member of society Lucius Malfoy_-" Her voice hitched in her throat and Harry's heart sank. Oh no, "_Was found dead, having swallowed his own tongue_." Hermione broke off, looking up at Harry with a horrified expression Harry knew was mirrored on his own face.

"Blimey." Ron breathed, turning around with the rest of them as they all turned towards the Slytherin table with wide eyes. Harry slowly felt the oxygen slipping out of the room. Draco's father was dead, and by the looks of it, Draco still didn't know. Harry leaned to the left to see around Ron's head and watched with growing horror and helplessness as the scene unfolded in front of him.

Pansy had reached the back of the paper and was running a finger down the text, reading bits and pieces and looking bored and sleepy until she reached the bottom and her finger froze and her eyes widened. Her mouth stopped moving and she slowly looked up at Draco, the same horror brewing inside Harry clear on her face as she looked at Draco, apparently unable to say anything. Harry's heart sank further as he watched Draco look up at her, an elegant eye brow raised in question that melted into a wary glare when Pansy didn't answer. Draco reached for the paper, only to have it snatched back and Pansy shook her head, biting her lip and looking as though she might cry. Harry watched Draco's glare fall from wary to annoyed as he stood, reaching over Pansy and practically tearing the paper away from her. Harry wanted to cry, to scream, to do something, anything but watch as Draco's silver eyes raced over the page, freezing when he reached the bottom and his expression went completely blank. He just stood there, the paper clutched in his hands and his mouth hanging open in, shock, horror, disbelief, or a combination of all three.

Harry felt his heart tear in two as it finally seemed to get through to Draco and his expression broke, almost imperceptibly but clear as day to Harry from across the hall and he dropped the paper, letting it fall and ignoring Pansy's frantic pleas, shaking her hand off when she grabbed his sleeve and fleeing the hall, his bag forgotten and his shoulders shaking slightly as he reached the doors and disappeared.

"Oh poor Draco." Hermione whispered as she watched his exit.

Harry watched until Draco left, finally snapping out of it and standing, grabbing his bag and following the blonde out of the hall, completely unaware of what he was doing, only that he knew he needed to get to Draco now.

He didn't even hear the confused shouts of Ron and Seamus follow him out of the hall. He moved as quickly as he could, scooting around a gaggle of first year Hufflepuffs crowded around the door and nearly knocking over a group of Slytherins on their way in, earning him a few curses and dirty looks that didn't even register with him.

His heart was pounding in his throat and the metallic taste of panic was seeping into Harry's throat as he stopped in the hallway just outside the Great Hall, suddenly lost. He didn't see which way Draco had gone and he needed to get to him now.

Deciding to go left, Harry took off at a jog, digging through his bag and yanking out the ancient map, tapping it with his wand after he wrested it out of his bag as well and panting,

"I- solemnly sear- I'm up- to no- good."

Still running, Harry began to scan the map frantically, searching for Draco's dot, the panic and fear only increasing as the tiny dot continued to evade his eyes. Finally, outside the Transfiguration corridor Harry stopped, clutching at his chest and gulping in mouthfuls of air as he flipped the map over, willing Draco's dot to appear for him.

"Where the fuck are you?" Harry whispered, his heart pounding behind his eyes and tears threatening and why couldn't he find him-there it was, the tiny dot labeled Draco Malfoy was on the next floor up, seated in the corner of an unused classroom. Harry finally exhaled shakily and took off at a run again.

He was once again out of breath by the time he reached the door of the classroom where Draco was. He stopped and leaned forward, resting his hands on his knees as he got his breath back. Finally he stood, wiping the slight sheen of sweat off his forehead and pushing open the door quietly, not wanting to startle Draco.

Harry was immediately met with the sounds of quiet sobs emitting from the dark classroom, and he slipped inside, closing the door behind him and raising his wand to cast a quiet Lumos.

"Draco?" Harry called out in a carrying whisper.

He received no answer, but could clearly see the curled up figure on the floor at the far end of the room. He put out his wand and went to him, falling to his knees in front of the sobbing boy and reaching for him, pulling him into his arms without a second thought.

Draco didn't seem to have any fight in him and he fell into Harry's embrace, clutching Harry's shirt with two white hands and burying his face in Harry's throat, his sobs growing louder and more desperate the tighter Harry held him.

"Draco I'm so sorry." Harry whispered into the white hair, holding Draco tightly to his chest. "I'm so sorry you had to find out about your dad like that-"

"You think that's why I'm freaking out?" Draco cut him off, pulling away from Harry and fixing him with wide, almost demented eyes still coursing tears down his pale face.

"Its not?" Harry asked, confused now.

"No!" Draco wailed, another sob tearing from his throat and he fell back into Harry's arms, shaking with sobs and shaking his head desperately.

"Then why-"

"My father was the last one." Came Draco's muffled reply.

Harry blinked, still confused out of his mind.

Draco let out a shuddering sigh and choked on his cries, still clutching onto Harry. "It means I'm the last one. There's no one else for the curse to kill, I'm going to die Harry I'm going to die-"

Draco's voice trailed off and he broke down completely, sobs tearing from him and he collapsed against Harry completely as Harry stared down at him in horror.

He was the last one. The curse had to get him now.

Harry inhaled deeply, making his mind up there on the spot.

"Draco," Harry said, holding the blonde closer to him. "We need to talk to Hermione."


	13. Spellium Revelio

Draco was terrified.

He never thought he would end up where he was, and he was sure his father would be screaming obscenities from the undead if he could at Draco's situation. He was in Harry Potter's room, no less on Harry Potter's bed, with aforementioned boy seated behind him, cautiously rubbing slow, awkward circles into his back with one of his hands. He was sure if this had happened three years ago, when he was his old self before his stupid spiral into proverbial crap, that he would never be caught dead in Harry goddam Potter's room, despite all the fantasies he's never had about it.

Truth be told he was just too damn tired.

He felt like burned out crap. He had managed to sleep last night (his mind refusing to acknowledge the fact that it was Harry's doing, a-bloody-gain,) he was still fucking knackered, like drop dead and sleep for a goddamned year tired. He hated crying, and it had taken him an embarrassing half hour to finally stop after Harry had found him. Yet another reason to hate Harry Potter. The boy seemed to be the only who ever caught Harry crying, except for Pansy and Blaise; but Pansy has seen him drunk and Blaise has caught him wanking so crying wasn't really bad in front of them.

Another reason to hate Harry Potter, Draco thought vehemently, was the fact that he had gone and properly snogged the living daylights out of Draco the morning before and though he was half mad with exhaustion last night he was almost positive that he had kissed him again. Draco had gone and fallen in love with him, and he was almost positive Harry was tiptoeing in the same direction, and the sod didn't even have the common decency to acknowledge it.

The boy in question was currently still seated behind him, still rubbing circles into his back and had been babbling incoherently about something Draco had stopped listening to ten minutes ago, something about how skinny he was interspersed with random reassurances that this wouldn't turn out shitty, like he knew it was going to he. His thoughts mostly focused on the pounding of blood in his ears and how fucking nervous he was at the moment.

He didn't want to be here. He really didn't. He didn't mind the whole Harry's bed, Harry's room thing so much, he mostly minded the fact that they were there waiting for Hermione Granger and Ron Weasley, two people Draco didnt exactly associate with pleasantness aimed in his direction. But Harry had been adamant, and even though he had finally agreed to go with him after the thirty minutes it took him to stop crying and the hour of cajoling, please and threats, he still really didn't want to fucking do this.

"I don't want to do this." Draco bit out stubbornly, cutting off Harry mid drabble about how knobby his spine was.

"I know." Harry answered after a beat of silence, his hand faltering for a second before restarting its slow graze of Draco's back. "But if anyone can help you its Hermione, she's been reading a lot about this and-"

"Oh lovely, not only have you taken up your old habit of stalking me, but now you've got Granger doing research on me like I'm a fucking homework assignment." Draco snapped, falling back into the comfort of irritability as he spun around on Harry, knocking his hand out of the way with his shoulder and meeting his wide green eyes. Harry looked back at him uncertainly, biting his lip in a way that was not at all alluring and wrinkling his eyebrows.

"I was worried." He muttered, not breaking his gaze with Draco and making a hot flush shoot up Draco's neck. Draco dropped his eyes and bit back a scream of frustration. He hated him. He fucking hated him. Here he was trying to make the bastard feel bad about stalking him and here he was, making Draco think he _cared_ and was _worried_ and fucking hell he wanted to hate him so much. He should want to slap him, not snog the frown off his face and do something unforgivable like hug him for being one of the few people in Draco's life that actually care.

He needed sleep. He was going soft on himself.

Draco raised him head up, fully intending to send back the snappy retort that ended in 'posh twat' forming on his tongue when the door banged open and Draco flinched, nearly jumping and luckily swallowing the undignified yelp that threatened to escape.

When he composed himself he found himself facing a gob smacked Ron Weasley and a book laden Hermione Granger, one watching him with his mouth wide open and one with a timid smile that made Draco want to vomit.

"Hi." Harry said a bit too loudly, standing and clasping his hands in front of him.

"This is what you couldn't tell me?" Ron sputtered, looking from Harry to Draco to Hermione with an amusing mix of disbelief and horror on his face.

"We knew you'd throw a fit if we told you what it was." Hermione said calmly, seating herself cross legged on the floor and unloading the stacks of books in her arms.

"Well no shit I'd throw a bloody fit! You've got Draco sodding Malfoy in my bloody room Harry!" Ron sputtered, still looking dumbfounded and still standing by the open door.

"Well the library would have called attention and we're not allowed to do magic there-" Hermione started, looking slightly apprehensive now and shooting Harry nervous looks before Draco cut her off.

"Technically I'm on Harry's side of the room but we can we discuss semantics with the fucking door shut Weasely?" He drawled at the redhead, making his mouth hang open wider but he shut the door anyways, shaking his head and still looking put out about the whole thing as he took a seat next to his girlfriend.

"So what is this about, are we finally having an intervention about his bitchiness?" Ron asked Harry and earning a slap for his trouble.

"No," Harry answered, sitting on the floor next to his bed and looking up at Draco expectantly, rolling his eyes when Draco gave him a look that told him exactly what he thought about sitting on the floor. "It's a- study session so to speak."

"'bout what?" Ron demanded, still glaring at Draco.

Hermione and Harry exchanged a look and Draco looked firmly at him nails, refusing to be a part of this if he could help it. He suddenly wished he had taken a spot on the floor next to Harry, He felt a bit exposed sitting on the bed while everyone stared up at him from the floor.

"I'm-" Hermione tried, glancing between Draco and Ron like she was afraid to offend one of them. "I'm sure you've heard about the Death Eaters,"

"Yeah, they're all dropping like flies, no offence." Ron shot half heartedly at Draco.

"None taken." Draco mumbled, his attention now firmly on the thread he was picking at on Harry duvet.

"Well, were here to try and stop, that, from happening to Draco, Malfoy?" Hermione looked up at him looking unsure. Draco almost laughed. They were discussing his life here and she was worried about how to address him. He shrugged at her, just to be difficult and gave a lazy smirk when she rolled her eyes at hm.

Ron looked confused for a second longer, his mouth hanging open again as he slowly looked up at Draco. "You?"

Draco finally looked up, meeting Harry's nervous green eyes and he sighed, so not wanting to do this, especially in front of the Redheaded Wonder and his trusty sidekick Lady Overbite, but for the millionth time today he swallowed what was left of his pride and rolled up his jumper and looked away as Weasely gaped, not wanting to look at the mangled mess that was once the tattoo he was so goddamned proud of.

"Blimey." He heard him whisper and he yanked down his sleeve and hid his face in his hands, groaning when he heard Hermione gasp in horror, Harry thankfully silent.

"Bloody fucking hell Malfoy, how long has that thing been all fucked up like that?" Ron finally sputtered when he apparently remembered what normal speech was.

"End of July." Draco muttered, the feeling of dread and heaviness settling back onto him and he suddenly found himself fighting down the panic again.

"Do you, have any idea why, or what it could be?" Hermione asked, all clinical now, opening a book in her lap after she handed one to each Harry and Ron on either side of her.

"No." Draco answered, raising an eyebrow at the book she held out to him and sighing and reaching forward to grab it when she shook it impatiently at him. "The-" He choked on the name, feeling hot shame creep into the back of his throat when he couldn't. "He never, mentioned anything about anything like this, anything that would happen if he didn't win, anything that would happen to any of us-" Draco couldn't finish, swallowing past the unbidden lump in his throat and he ran a hand through his hair, past caring how fucked up he looked by now.

Hermione had tactfully looked away, down thumbing through her book and slapping a hand on Ron's book to snap him away from staring at Draco and he hastily looked back down, frantically flipping pages.

Harry had remained quiet through all of this, flipping through his own book and occasionally sending worried glances Draco's way, which Draco pointedly ignored. It must look odd as it is, him and Harry in his room together, much less on speaking terms, and luckily his friends hadn't even picked up on how fucking weird it all was, they seemed to engrossed in the nightmare on his forearm. He still burned whenever he looked at Harry, the memory of their kisses swimming stubbornly to the front of his mind whenever he looked at the sod. He snuck a glance down at him anyways, momentarily lost in fascination at the way he chewed on his lower lip as he read.

"Draco?" He heard Hermione call nervously, snapping him out of his haze and he looked up at her.

"Um, do you mind if I, take a look?" She looked terrified now, as though she was expecting him to either yell or explode and he realized he must look a sight if Hermione unshakable Granger was looking at him like a ticking fucking time bomb.

"Look?" Draco asked cautiously, but rolling up his sleeve anyways.

"Yes, um, it's a basic spell, but it works with telling the components in potions, maybe it will tell us what exactly the curse is composed of, or if its its own curse, so we can figure out if we need a single countercurse or a series-" Hermione had gotten up onto her knees and half crawled over to the bed with her wand in her hand, faltering off towards the end of her speech as she noticed Harry and Ron watching her with matching clueless expressions.

Draco, luckily, had the intelligence level to actually follow everything she said and he nodded, extending his forearm and sending an icy glare to Ron when he leaned forward and gasped in a matter that was not at all subtle. He caught sight of Harry on the other side of Hermione, watching his face with concern and fear that made Draco's heart clench uncomfortably. He blinked, looking back down at his arm as Hermione carefully grasped his wrist, careful not to touch the tip of the snake and waved her wand over his arm in a complicated symbol, a tiny golden ribbon flowing out of her wand and twisting around his arm.

"_Spellium Revelio_." Hermione murmured, flicking her wand and the ribbon disconnected from the tip of her wand and would around his arm, tighter and tighter until it seemed to seep into his skin and suddenly a hissing filled the room, Hermione flinching slightly but not letting go of his arm. Draco watched, spellbound as the hissing faded, and two wisps of smoke began to curl out of his skin where the ribbon was, one blue and one dark red and they began to grow and twist, forming into two snakes that twisted and wound around each other before melding into one, a heavy black color and the large snake snapped once at Hermione's hand before disappearing, fading along with the hissing noise completely.

"Oh." Hermione breathed, looking mildly horrified as she looked up at Draco with wide brown eyes.

"What?" Draco asked in full blown panic mode now.

Hermione bit her lip and looked at Harry, who looked just as confused before looking back up at Draco, looking for some reason like she wanted to cry.


	14. Dear Readers

So this is mainly to the reviewer who hurt my feelings, but its also to anyone who still loves this story.

I really am sorry i havent touched this story in about a year, but my life has been fantastically shit and you'll see that all my stories have gone heavily untouched until recently. i hate that its taking so long, this story gets so much better and im really trying to finish it as soon as i can i swear, but i honestly havent been able to.

in january of last year, i moved away to school, in february, i was brought home and hospitalized for my eating disorder.

i was released a month later.

i wasnt allowed near a computer until may.

i managed to post two things before my phone was taken away.

in june i was re hospitalized

i was kept in outpatient for the rest of the year.

this isnt a sob story, a boo hoo feel bad for me and review my story pity party, i would do this through pm but you reviewed annonymously so i cant. this is an honest explination as to why ive ignored it for so long. but here is my word. this will be finished. and soon.

and just for you guys, heres 250 words of the next chapter. IVE ALREADY STARTED WRITING IT.

sorry about the rant everyone, i just thought you all deserved an explination.

Harry stared up at the ceiling, his hands still folded over his chest where he had put them an hour ago and he sighed, knowing he wasn't going to get any sleep tonight and, judging by the lack of snores not coming from the other bed in the room, he wasn't the only one.

He didn't know what he was expecting to find out once he actually got Draco into his room to talk to Hermione, he didn't know what he actually thought, or hoped the curse was but the answer he was given was so much worse than what he could have ever imagined. His heart had ached for Draco when Hermione had finally voiced it, her own eyes shining with fear and tears.

"What" Draco had asked cautiously, his gaze darting between the three of them frantically. "What is it."

Hermione dropped his wrist and her wand, half crawling back to her seat and grabbing a book from under the large pile at her feet, opening it and running her finger down a column until she found two that she underlined, and finally turned back to Draco.

"It's a heavily mutated curse," She explained, shooting a glance at Harry as he continued to stare shamelessly at Draco, "It's main components seem to be a modification of a Protean Charm, which explains the marks main qualities," She broke off, biting her lip and not looking at Draco before continuing. "And the Imperious curse."


	15. Clueless

Harry stared up at the ceiling, his hands still folded over his chest where he had put them an hour ago and he sighed, knowing he wasn't going to get any sleep tonight and, judging by the lack of snores not coming from the other bed in the room, he wasn't the only one.

He didn't know what he was expecting to find out once he actually got Draco into his room to talk to Hermione, he didn't know what he actually thought, or hoped the curse was but the answer he was given was so much worse than what he could have ever imagined. His heart had ached for Draco when Hermione had finally voiced it, her own eyes shining with fear and tears.

"What" Draco had asked cautiously, his gaze darting between the three of them frantically. "What is it."

Hermione dropped his wrist and her wand, half crawling back to her seat and grabbing a book from under the large pile at her feet, opening it and running her finger down a column until she found two that she underlined, and finally turned back to Draco.

"It's a heavily mutated curse," She explained, shooting a glance at Harry as he continued to stare shamelessly at Draco, "It's main components seem to be a modification of a Protean Charm, which explains the marks main qualities," She broke off, biting her lip and not looking at Draco before continuing. "And the Imperious curse."

Harry remembered how his heart froze, how the tears finally freed themselves from Hermione's eyes and how the blood drained from Draco's already too pale, too gaunt face. He had stared at her for a few seconds before his mouth finally snapped shut and his face shut down, the impassive mask that Harry had grown to hate slipping back into place.

"What does that mean?" Draco finally asked, the fear shining in his eyes and his fingers twisting into Harry's duvet, making Harry's own fingers itch to cover his.

Hermione had somewhat composed herself and she dropped her book, looking over and turning a page on Ron's book absently before she crawled forward towards Draco again. She reached around Draco and picked up the book that had been placed aside when she took his hand, flipping to a chapter and quickly skimming a few lines before shaking her head and looking distressed. "It means that for all intents and purposes you have the essence of the Imperious Curse embedded onto your arm, that's what's making you try to-" Hermione broke off and swallowed, casting another nervous look to Draco, "Um, yeah, but that is what's controlling you, and as far as we know there isn't a counter curse to the Imperious Curse."

"But, there isn't a counter curse, but-" Harry had started, knowing that everyone knew that he had no trouble with the Imperious Curse; and he could practically feel the resentful glare being thrown at him from the bed when Hermione cut him off for him.

"We know you can throw it off Harry, but you're a rare case, not everyone has the mental stamina or the will power to throw off such a powerful curse like that." Hermione sighed, looking at Harry apologetically.

Harry bit his lip, the panic that had been burning in the back of his throat coming back up and making his heart pound as Hermione shot down his idea. He knew it was a long shot but for some reason he was becoming more and more desperate for an answer, and the more distressed Hermione became the less likely it seemed that an answer would become readily available.

"Have you tried Dreamless Sleep?" Ron asked out of nowhere, still reading from his book and slightly startling Harry.

Harry looked back up as Draco nodded solemnly, his eyes clouding over and he sighed. "Yes. It doesn't work."

"How does it not work?" Hermione asked quickly, snatching the book from Ron and reading quickly, her eyes dancing across the page.

"I still dream. And I cant wake up." Draco said, his tired grey eyes landing on Harry guilty before darting away. Harry blinked, confused at Draco's expression.

"Then, how are you not dead if you couldn't wake up?" Ron asked, his eyebrows contracting in confusion.

Draco's eyes darted to Harry once more and he swallowed and Harry suddenly remembered, Draco's blue face, Draco's throat spasms as he fought to breathe, how he didn't respond to Harry's frantic cries and only awakening when Harry had forcibly revived him with an _Enervate._

"I-I don't know." Draco swallowed heavily, his eyes suddenly glassy and his shoulders drooping.

Ron and Hermione had left shortly after that, Ron with an arm over Hermione's shoulders as she wrung her free hand that wasn't carrying the load of books. Harry's heart went out to her, as panicked and worried he was about Draco he knew it was just eating Hermione alive that she couldn't figure out what the answer was.

After Harry had kissed Hermione's cheek and asked Ron to stay with her so Draco would stop being twitchy and nervous, he had shut the door to his room and locking it as an after thought. A mistake in hindsight, the instant the door locked his nerves flared up with a vengeance, his heart leaping into his throat and his face burning, the realization that he was now alone with Draco Malfoy in his room with a locked door and wasn't expecting any company smacking him over the head and his hand froze on the lock. He didn't realize how long he had been standing there until he heard Draco speak from behind him.

"Do I really look that bad that you'd rather stare at the door all night?"

Harry flushed, spinning around with a nervous laugh and running a hand through his hair self consciously. Draco was still cross legged on the bed, his shoulders heavy and his head drooping, watching Harry with one eyebrow raised and Harry wondered how he could manage to look condescending while looking as tired as he was. He really did look awful though, his hair was too long and it drooped in his face, his eyes were sunken in and his lips were chapped and bitten.

Harry mildly hated him for still looking tempting as shit.

"No, you don't look bad at all." Harry mumbled, his hand still in his hair and his eyes falling to the floor, his nerves still frayed. He dropped his hand and slowly made his way to the bed and sat down tentatively, leaving a foot of space between him and Draco. He suddenly felt horribly out of place, like his limbs were too long for him and he found he had not the foggiest idea of what to do now.

Draco seemed just as lost, his lower lip disappearing between his teeth again and his eyes glued to his fingers as they dismantled his duvet. Out of their own accord Harry's hand reached out and covered Draco's fingers, and to Harry's endless shock the spidery hand turned over and clasped his own tightly. Harry finally looked up to find Draco's wide grey eyes watching him.

Draco licked his lips and swallowed before dropping his eyes back down to their entwined hands and he finally spoke.

"Why are you doing this?" He asked quietly, his eyelids twitching.

"Doing what?" Harry asked.

"Helping me." Draco blinked and regarded him with a wary and slightly reproachful gaze.

"Why shouldn't I?" Harry asked, honestly confused, Sure he and Draco didn't have the best history but given the events of the last few weeks he thought they were doing alright. More than all right if the enthusiasm with which Draco had kissed him back was anything to go on.

"Because I'm-" Draco sighed and looked away, though he didn't let go of his hand. "You know why."

"Should any of that matter anymore?" Harry asked, suddenly desperate to wipe the desolate and slightly angry look off Draco's face. "You're in trouble Draco, and I, well, I like you now." Harry felt his face turn a million shades of red when he finally admitted it to him but refused to think on it further.

Draco's pale face took on a slightly pink tinge at Harry's words and the beginning of a smirk curved his mouth. "You cant save everyone Potter." He said quietly.

"I can try." Harry answered with a smile that Draco finally returned, his gaze returning to Harry's shyly and Harry felt his heart begin to pound again. Cautiously he reached out with his free hand and pushed a few wispy strands of hair off of Draco's face. Draco's eyes followed the movement and let him rest his hand on the side of his face and Harry took that as permission and he leaned forward, nearing closer to the blonde.

Draco's tired eyes burned into his own Harry's forehead came into contact with his own and Harry rested there for a second, his nose brushing the pale pointed one. Harry released Draco's now shaking hand and he cradles his face with both hands now. He could taste Draco's breath on his mouth, a heady taste of sugar and sleep and he stared back into the grey depths.

"You can let me try." Harry whispered, holding Draco's face still so he couldn't look away. He didn't however, his eyes remained on his own as Draco pushed forward and closed the gap between them, pressing his mouth to Harry's.

Draco's lips were dry and his nose was at an odd angle with his own but Harry was suddenly so lost he didn't care. He clasped Draco's face tighter and pressed back, kissing Draco hard and reveling in the shaky sigh Draco released through his nose. He felt two shaky hands come to rest on his shoulders and nearly jumped when he felt a nervous tongue brush along his bottom lip, quietly asking for permission which Harry granted eagerly, opening his mouth as Draco continued to kiss him softly.

Harry let his hands caress the sunken cheekbones and he thought idly about how gentle Draco was being with him. To be honest he had always thought that, given Draco's aggressive demeanor and generally bold attitude, he wouldn't be gentle in any area, including kissing.

Not that Harry had given any thought to the matter at all.

As though on cue, however, Harry felt a gentle bite on his lower lip and a strangled sound that was almost a moan but not quite a gasp escaped him and it seemed to spur something in Draco. His hands moved from his waist and they grasped at Harry, winding in his hair and his kiss turned forceful, his tongue plundering at Harry's mouth as he pulled him impossibly closer.

Harry responded eagerly, snogging Draco with all he could manage and tugging at his too loose jumper, his hands roaming over the body ridges of his spine and down his arms and he could feel the familiar stirring low in his gut as his blood drained downward, his cock pulsating and thickening against his leg and he suddenly wanted Draco as close as fucking possible.

As though reading his mind, Draco began to move. Harry continued to caress his, keeping his hands on him and guiding him when he felt Draco shift on the bed, his mouth never leaving Harry's as he rose to his knees, half crawling along the bed closer to Harry and straddling him. Draco slowed his movements as he lowered himself on Harry's lap, breaking the kiss with the softest of sounds and he watched Harry's face almost nervously, as though waiting for Harry to pull away or push him off.

Harry simply watched Draco, his hands running idly over the thin thighs on either side of him and looking up at the blonde. His pupils were blown wide with arousal, a thin ring of grey visible around them and a pretty flush was sitting high on his cheekbones, his mouth swollen and red with a tiny shine of Harry's saliva gleaming on his lower lip. That combined with the look of almost fear and sheer vulnerability that Harry didn't even thing Draco Malfoy was capable of nearly pushed Harry over the edge and he grabbed at him again, pulling him back down to slant his lips over his and hauling his body back closer to his own.

His hips automatically thrust up to meet the thin body on his and he felt an answering hardness meet his own, tearing a groan from his lips as he heard a shuddering whine break free from Draco. The blonde began to move against him, rhythmically grinding down on Harry as he pulled his lower lip into his mouth and suckling on it as he rode Harry mercilessly.

Harry was lost, caught helplessly between the glorious friction Draco's body was providing and the feeling of Draco's tongue still dancing along his lower lip. He continued to thrust up into the warm heat between Draco's thighs, spurned on by the delicious noises falling from Draco's lips as they steadily grew higher and higher, interspersed with minute whines and grunts as Draco's breath began to hitch on every pass and his hips began to stutter against Harry's as Harry felt his own release creeping up on him.

When Draco finally left, it was with a wet patch on his pants and a slightly bad attitude about it, though he didn't complain too much when Harry silenced him with a kiss on his way out. Harry had watched him go down the stairs before closing the door and leaning against it, his breathing evening out and his smile twisting into a grimace as he realized his own pants were growing cold and sticky.

He had managed to get into a clean pair and was in bed when Ron finally stumbled in, marks on his neck and his hair disheveled and looking as though he had had just as good a night as Harry did. He had feigned sleep to avoid the awkward questions Hermione no doubt couldn't answer and waited until Ron had climbed into bed before closing his curtains and sitting up, leaning his head on his knees and letting himself think.

Which brought him to where he was right now, staring at the curtains of his bed with his hands clasped over his stomach and absolutely no idea what to do.


	16. Desperate Times and Desperate Measures

Draco wasn't there at breakfast the next morning.

Harry couldn't eat at all, he had spent the last god knows how long ignoring Ron's pointed stare and attempts at to talk to him and played with his oatmeal, not touching it and staring daggers at Pansy Parkinson as she read the newspaper silently and occasionally shot glances at the empty seat next to her. He was having a mild panic attack, Draco was always at breakfast before Harry was even awake, and when there's a possibility someone might not wake up one morning its a valid enough reason to freak when they aren't at breakfast in Harry's opinion.

It wasn't until he felt a tap on his shoulder that scared the crap out of him that he realized Pansy was now watching him back warily and someone was trying to get his attention. With a slight blush he ended his staring contest across the hall and turned to see Hermione watching him nervously as she settled in between him and Ron at the table. Harry raised his eyebrows at Hermione and pushed away his untouched oatmeal.

"Where's Malfoy?" She asked, glancing back across the hall and sending a nervous smile to Pansy as she continued to watch them with a scowl. "He's usually here early."

"I don't know." Harry answered, trying and failing to let on just how fucking nervous he was about the missing blonde. "I haven't seen him since last night." The mention of last night brought a burning blush to Harry's face and he turned back down scratched the back of his head uncomfortably.

"Really?" Ron asked disbelieving with a grin and a mouthful of toast. "He's lying, two galleons says he's already checked the map twice looking for the git."

Hermione rolled her eyes at Ron as she reached over him for the orange juice and Harry felt like an idiot. The map. The thought to check the map for Draco hadn't even occurred to him and a jolt of what felt like a mix of sheer joy and paralyzing fear washed over him. Without a further word to either Ron or Hermione he stood up, slinging his bag over his shoulder and fishing in his pocket, pulling out two galleons and dropping them down in front of Ron as he left the hall, pointedly ignoring the triumphant "I knew it!" that followed him out.

It wasn't until he was safely out of the main entrance hall and up the stairs towards the east wing that Harry stopped, ducking behind a painting and leaning against the wall and panting to get his breath back. Once he could breathe he pulled out the map, muttering the incantation and furiously scanning the map looking for Draco's name.

He wasnt in the North Tower anymore, and he still wasn't at breakfast. Harry could feel the beginnings of his panic attack coming back up when he finally found the name he was looking for, surprisingly lurking around the Headmistress' office. Harry blinked, he knew Draco was borderline terrified of McGonagall, and wouldn't go anywhere near her office if someone paid him.

Deciding to ignore the strangeness of Draco's location he instead wiped the map and shoved it back into his pocket, turning and nearly tripping over himself as he walked as quickly as he could.

* * *

Draco could feel his heart beating in his throat as he nervously fiddled with his tie. He was currently seated on a windowsill, in direct view of the Headmistress' door, and he really hoped she wouldn't come out of her office and see him before it was absolutely necessary. Draco knew he wasn't a brave person, he had long accepted that, and he most certainly wasn't proud of what he was planning, or had planned, but he was desperate, and if anything it was at least slightly brave of him to accept his fate and die quietly and away from a certain Harry Potter.

He flinched as someone came around the corner, making his heart stop and he scowled as the ghost passed harmlessly along. He knew it was too early to expect anyone in the halls this early, classes started in roughly five minutes but he knew that no one actually left breakfast until the warning bell despite the new locks on the classroom doors.

He continued to glare at the ghosts retreating form and sighed, sinking back into himself. He was caught between a screaming sense of self preservation and a heavy sense of self loathing. He wanted desperately to just listen to Harry-knows-everything-Potter and his band of merry Book Thumpers and just let them fix it, hell they had defeated the Dark Lord in a summer. But at the same time the feeling of Harry's soft hair between his fingers and his sturdy, muscular form against his own lingered in Draco's mind and it actually hurt him. He knew he was being stupid, literally hiding from Harry and all his smiles and good intentions but he knew this was what needed to happen.

He shivered against he glass and bit down a yelp as the inside of his jumper caught against his arm and pulled at the torn skin, sending a wave of pure fucking despair straight through Draco and he leaned against the glass and stared at the ceiling. Every time he felt the burn of the torn flesh on his arm he could hear Granger's words echoing in his head, the words that basically sealed his fate and spelled certain death for him and not for the first time he felt a surge of burning jealousy towards the Chosen One For Fucking Everything.

_It's a combination of a Protean Charm, and the Imperious Curse._

_Not everyone has the mental stamina and willpower or some shite._

Mental Stamina his arse, Draco thought savagely. But as much as he loathe to admit she was right, Draco couldnt even cast so much as a patronus, much less throw off a curse as strong as the one currently eating away at his arm. He let his head fall onto his knees and sighed. But the least he could do was go with some form of grace, and leave Harry with some sense that, he didnt even know. He hated the git, he hated the fact that he liked him so fucking much, and that the moron apparently reciprocated said feelings if the grind session they had last night said anything.

_Fuck him._ Draco snarled as he stood up, intending to forget his plan and find Harry and tell him exactly where he should shove his good intentions. Draco had been fully ready to accept his fate and die, alone with a curse he asked for without anyone there and without leaving anyone behind. Leave it to Harry goddamn Potter to stick his perfect nose into Draco's life, again, and fuck things up. _I didn't ask for his fucking help in the first place._

Just as Draco had stood up, temper boiling and nerves frayed he spotted none other than the Boy Wonder practically sprinting towards him from the end of hallway, looking flushed and shaggable and Draco just wanted to punch him. He knew it was only a matter of time, Harry always found him no matter where he hid.

But just as Draco steadied himself Harry drew level with him and all of Draco's resolve melted away and the panic set back in, winding two hands along his windpipe and he felt the earth tilt on its axis for a split second as he met Harry's wide and terrified green eyes.

He couldn't do this.

"Draco!" Harry panted, stopping in front of him and leaning forward to catch his breath. "What are you doing here? You scared the living shite out of me!" Harry looked up and Draco's heart cracked a little as he met the expression of sheer concern on Harry's face as the green eyes surveyed him quickly, accessing him for damage. "How are you?"

Draco froze, the words he had so perfectly rehearsed in his head failing him completely and he drew a complete blank and he felt so lightheaded, he was literally going to pass out.

"Draco?" Harry repeated, stepping forward with a hand outstretched, his face leaning closer and it wasnt until Draco felt the touch of Harry's strong hand on his cheek and the whisper of breathe on his lips that he snapped back to reality, stepping back and almost throwing Harry off of him, the words coming to his lips before he even had a chance to think.

"Get away from me." He spat out, holding his arms around himself unconsciously and lowering his eyes to the floor as Harry's expression melted from concern to heartbroken and confused.

"Draco-" Harry began, but it did nothing to calm Draco, far from it, it made Draco bristle with irritation and he glared at Harry.

"Stay away from me Potter." He spat out Harry's name like it left a bad taste in his mouth and he took another step back as Harry took a step forward, his arms still outstretched.

* * *

"Draco what the fuck? What did i do?"Harry stuttered, looking up and shifting nervously as the warning bell rang and the sound of people drawing near grew louder. "Come on don't be like this." Harry was confused, so fucking confused. Draco was staring at him like he was the devil himself, a combination of paralyzing fear and a burning hatred and Harry could feel his blood run cold as the grey eyes harden and disappeared behind the cold mask of indifference that Draco used to wear. He almost wanted to cry as he watched the blonde back away a few steps, his arms still tight around himself as he stared harry down.

"I swear to god Potter you have exactly three seconds to get out of my fucking face before I slap you so hard you wont even be sure I did anything." Draco snarled, body turning like he was about to bolt and Harry could hear the voices of students getting louder as the second bell tolled and without thinking he took the last two steps towards Draco, grasping his sleeve.

Which he let go of the instant he did, as Draco's right hand raised like he was actually going to hit him and Harry seized up, eyes clenching shut as he prepared himself for the sting of the slap but it never came, instead the resounding slap of flesh on flesh that rang through the air made him flinch and open his eyes right back up.

Only to see Draco curled up on himself, his hands clutching the right side of his rapidly reddening face as he stared at him with an expression of slightly defiant fear.

"What the fuck Potter!" Draco suddenly wailed and Harry was still frozen in confusion at what the fuck just happened when he heard a stern voice from behind him that it all made sense and made his blood fucking boil.

"Mr. Potter!"

Harry closed his eyes. That conniving little sneak, Harry might have guess that Draco didn't want to talk by his attitude but this was beyond low, even for him. The thought of why Draco didn't want to see him didn't even cross his mind as he felt the anger pulse through him. Oh he was going to pay for this. He heard the muttering of students around him and sighed, knowing that by the end of the day the entire school would have heard that he slapped Draco Malfoy and now speaking to him in public would be impossible. He turned to glare at Draco from where he was no doubt still milking the performance, but by the time Harry opened his eyes Draco was gone, already down the hall and he sighed, accepting defeat this one time before turning to face the furious Headmistress.

He didn't even hear what McGonagall was shouting, and the two nights of detention he was handed didn't even phase him. he was going to get to the bottom of this if it killed him.


	17. Band Aid Solutions

Harry was still fuming by dinner time, endlessly pissed off that not only had Draco avoided him like the plague all damn day,but that he was missing Quidditch practice for the fucking detention he had now. He alternated between glaring daggers across the at the now empty seat next to Pansy Parkinson and ignoring Ginny next to him as she talked his ear off and poked his shoulder.

"Seriously Harry, you cause so much trouble for the team it's a wonder you're even the captain still, much less still on the team." Ginny mused, her tone dripping with sarcasm as she idly admired the Seekers glove she was wearing. Harry bristled with irritation as Ginny continued to sigh and mutter under her breath, watching her titter and glaring when she snatched the spoon he was bending out of his hands.

"You're wondering how I'm still captain, go ask the millions of Quidditch cups I've won for us." Harry shot back, grabbing his spoon back.

"I played half those games!" Ginny snapped back angrily. "Speaking of losing games and not playing well, where's Ron." Ginny scowled and crunched on a carrot stick, glaring around the hall. Harry blinked and followed her gaze, realizing she was right. He hasn't seen either of them since breakfast that morning. They weren't even at lunch that day. "Harry?"

Harry shook his head and looked up, meeting Ginny's expectant look and he shrugged. "I dunno."

Ginny growled and smacked Harry's head. "You're hopeless." She groaned, whacking Harry's hands as he tried to block her.

"Oi! What the fuck Gin?" Harry squawked indignantly as he dodged her hands. Around her flying red hair he saw Ron and Hermione hurrying towards them, both of their arms full of books and Hermione's hair flying. "They're right there you psychopath!" Harry said, catching the strap on her glove and swinging her hand away. Ginny spun around, smacking Harry in the face with her hair and earning another squawk from Harry as she leapt up from her seat and ran towards then, tearing the books from Ron's arms and shoving them at Hermione's before snatching Ron's sleeve and all but dragging him from the hall, throwing a wave and a cheeky grin at Harry over her shoulder.

Harry stood quickly, hurrying to Hermione's aid, smiling slightly as she shot an indignant glare at Ginny's retreating form.

"Honestly, sometimes that girl." Hermione scowled as she jet Harry pile books into his own arms.

"Where've you been all day?" Harry asked once they've managed to haul half the library back to where he had been sitting and Hermione had sunk down into Ginny's vacated seat. "More light reading?"

"Sort of." Hermione answered, shoving her frazzled hair out of her face. "Ron told me he found an interesting article in an old archive the other day, an it gave us a new lead to follow."

Harry blinked at Hermione, trying and failing to hide the tiny bubble of hope that was beginning to rise in his throat. "Are you saying-"

"I'm not saying we found answers," Hermione cut him off. "I'm saying we found, something that might help us, give us more time and an added advantage until we do find answers, and we need it." Hermione bit her lip. "Draco fell asleep in advanced astrology today, it was awful, it took Blaise five minutes and an Enervate to wake him up so he'd stop screaming. They sent him to the hospital." She shook her head and shot a look over to the Slytherin table. "Its getting bad Harry, people are going to start talking, and you know Draco, he doesnt do well with stuff like that."

Harry wasnt listening, he was lost, just the image of Draco going through another episode alone and that it was getting worse to the point where he didnt wake up on his own anymore, he was running out of time.

And to top it all off, Draco wouldnt speak to him, Harry felt so fucking helpless he could feel the panic coming back up and he sighed, dropping his head into his hands and letting Hermione idly pat the back of his neck. He felt awful like he had some how let Draco down, he hadn't spoken to him in one day and he'd already gone and tried to die again and he'd not found out until four hours later, and he;d found out from Hermione of all people, meaning everyone already knew. The urge to find Draco was overwhelming, to find him and hold him, shelter him and find him away from the world and the curse and himself and just-

_You cant save everyone Potter._

"How is Draco today? Didnt he tell you about it?" Hermione asked.

Harry snorted darkly. "Hot long have you been holed up in the library? Havent you heard about the savage beating i gave him this morning"

"Harry Potter." Hermione gasped. "You most certainly didnt."

"Of course not,: Harry rolled his eyes. "The dramatic little brat didnt want to talk to me for some reason." Harry meant to further explain when he was distracted by what felt like paper whacking him on the back of his head. He reached back and grasped a small winged envelope that was fluttering around him and sighed explosively when he caught sight of the monogram on it.

"Speaking of, I have detention." Harry grumbled, pushing himself up and slinging his bag over his arm. "Wanna tell me what this idea of yours is?"

"Later." Hermione waved him off. "Find Draco, say sorry and i'll find you after detention."

* * *

Two hours later found a still mildly pissed off Harry storming his way from the head mistress office where he had last seen Draco that morning. Detention hadn't gone well, McGonagall still liked him enough not to be openly hostile and he had spent the last tow hours re organizing her book case while she lectured him on keeping his temper (_Honestly Potter you're an adult now.)_ Far from reducing the anger Harry still harbored the menial talk only served to further piss Harry off. He stormed his way up to the tower, completely forgetting Hermione's words to find Draco until he climbed the last staircase up to the North Tower.

That sneaky little brat, conniving little sneak, sinking down to that low a level just to avoid me like a little bitch. why is he being so confusing, snogging me one minute then screaming and acting all stupid, little-

Harry's thought rand was cut short as he reached the top of the tall winding staircase and spotted the object of his frustrations curled up on a windowsill, his head down on his knees that were pulled up to his chest. He didnt look up as Harry watched hm and Harry slowly crept closer.

He was less then a few paces away from the sleeping blonde when his trainer caught on the floor and squeaked harshly, startling Draco and his head snapped up, his wide grey eyes focusing on Harry and his face twisted into a snarl, his mouth opening to throw what was probably more swears when the anger building up in Harry finally boiled over and he snapped.

"What the fuck was that this morning?" Harry nearly screamed, cutting off Draco and causing the blondes mouth to fall open. "You spend all of last night-" Harry broke off, the memory of last night making him blush furiously. "And them you pull the bitchiest stunt on earth just to avoid me?"

"Go away Potter." Draco finally spoke, unfolding his long limbs from the window sill and standing, his hands balling into fists and his face taking on a pinkish tint. "I'm done, just leave me alone."

"What th fuck is this?" Harry snarled, taking a step closer to Draco and noting Draco take a hasty step back, the submission in Draco's stance and the way his eyes clouded over with fear making Harry even angrier and he reached out and grabbed Draco's wrist, wincing at how thin and fragile the bones beneath his skin felt in his hand and unceremoniously dragged Draco down the hallway.

"Let the fuck go of me Potter, let go you barbaric moronic buffoon, fucking shit headed fuck let the fuck go!" Draco spat out as he proceeded to throw the biggest fit and dragged his feet into the unyielding marble floor and stumbled behind Harry. Harry didnt give two fucks however and continued to drag Draco into an empty chamber across the hall and all but throwing Draco into it, slamming the door and spinning to see Draco looking flustered, terrified but extremely pissed off as his chest heaved and he glared at Harry for all he was worth.

"Talk." Harry demanded through gritted teeth.

"Fuck you." Draco spat back.

"Why are you being like this? did i do something wrong?" Harry pleaded, stepping closer to Draco where he huddled in the strip of moonlight coming from the window.

"Stop it." Draco spat out with another snarl.

"Are you just stopping now? was it me?"

"Fucking stop it Potter."

"Well-"

"No!"

"Then what is it?" Harry demanded, opening his arms and almost begging.

"I like you okay?" Draco finally screamed, looking lost and frustrated and clutching his too long hair and turning around, facing away from Harry.

Harry froze. _What_?

"What? You like me so you're acting like a dick?" He demanded, reaching for the bony shoulder and snatching has hand away when Draco spun back around with a burning and manic gleam in his eyes and his teeth bared.

"No." He grit out, not meeting Harry's eyes.

"Then what?"

"I-" Draco looked around and looked like he was going to cry. "I, can't let you go down with me."

Harry was lost, and it must have shown on his face as Draco sighed and rolled his eyes. " I can't let you care about me and then i just go and die, it's not-" He broke off and shook his head.

Harry stared at Draco, still completely lost until it finally clicked in his head and he opened his mouth.

_Oh._

"Draco,"

"Shut up." Draco snapped petulantly, still not meeting Harry's gaze.

"Draco, no seriously." Harry said, grabbing Draco's arm. Draco immediately struggled, trying to yank his arm away until Harry pulled him to him and wrapped his arms around his thin frame, effectively trapping him against his chest even as the blonde struggled to free himself. "Draco-"

"Let go." Draco snarled again, no longer struggling but finally meeting Harry's gaze with narrowed eyes. "I don't want to talk about it."

"Fine!" Harry said, making Draco look up at him with confusion. "Dont talk about it! But don't avoid me like I've done something wrong, and don't avoid me in general! You dont want to leave me if you die then let me help you so that doesn't happen you idiot!"

Harry finally stopped, breathing heavily from his rant and his face inches from Draco as the blonde stared up at him with wide eyes. Draco blinked, licking his lips and casting his gaze down to focus on Harry's collarbone. "You can't fix this." He muttered, his face still shuttered but Harry could feel his body marginally relax into him.

"Then stop making it difficult to try." Harry answered softly, relaxing his tight hold on Draco and turning it into a sort of embrace rather than a prison. "Let me at least try so there can be a chance we can, and if it doesn't then hey, we've wanted each other dead since we met, right?" Harry joked, leaning his head down to try and catch Draco's eyes and grinning when the corner of his mouth tugged up in what wanted to be a smile.

"You're a dick." Draco answered, the tension leaving his body and Harry felt torn between elation that Draco wasnt fighting him anymore and the fear that Draco wasnt fighting him because he was simply too exhausted to even stand on his own. Either way, Harry would take a tired and pliable Draco over a crabby and violent one any day and he smiled, letting Draco lean into him fully and bury his pointy face in his throat. They stood like that for a few minutes, Harry simply letting Draco lean on him before clearing his throat, shifting his arms and earning a petulant sound from the body against his.

"Are you alright?" He asked softly, making Draco stiffen in his arms and he knew Draco knew exactly what he was asking about.

"I don't want to talk about it." Came the muffled response and Harry knew he wasnt getting any further on the subject. He sighed making a mental note to bug him about that later before shaking him gently and earning a tiny bite on his neck.

"Wha?" Draco mumbled through his mouthful of skin.

"I came to find you because Hermione thinks she found something."

"What?" Draco asked flatly, watching Hermione like she had grown a second head.

"I know it's un orthodox," Hermione said, looking nervous and wringing her hands from where she paced in front of Harry's bed where Harry sat, his back against his headboard next to Ron. Draco was curled up on himself on the foot, watching Hermione wear a hole in the floor. Harry wanted desperately to scoot to the end of the bed and be near Draco, but though Hermione and Ron had accepted him enough to help him Harry hadn't exactly told them the extent of his relationship with Draco, and he didnt think now was the time.

"It's fucking illegal that's what it is." Draco said. "And what are the chances it'll even work and not just get someone sent to jail?"

"You're mark is cursed with a combination of the Protean Charm and the Imperious Curse!" Hermione burst out, finally frustrated with Draco's objections. "Who's to say another Imperious Curse wont be the answer? You?"

"And what the fuck makes you so sure it will?" Draco's face had lost all color by this point, he and Hermione had been arguing this point for the past twenty minutes and he didnt look any closer to being convinced she was right. "What if it doesnt react well and it makes my arm explode and you lot get sent to jail? Have you forgotten the security wards on the fucking castle?"

"Look!" Hermione shouted, looking close to tears and red in the face. "I'm not saying it will work and im not saying it wont im saying we should try! If you would just have a little faith and let yourself accept that I somewhat know what im talking about and just listen for once in your life!"

"Mione!" Ron cut her off, standing up and taking her shoulders to get her to stop yelling. Hermione closed her eyes, breathing deeply through her nose and shaking her head to cool it as Draco turned to Harry, panic beginning to show in his grey eyes and he looked pleading at him. Harry felt his heart break, in all honesty he was terrified, had been since he had heard Hermione's crazy idea in the first place. He could sense Draco's discomfort, could see it in his body that he was ready to bolt, but Harry wasnt about to let him get away that easily.

"Draco." Harry said softly. Draco turned away, focusing his tired grey eyes on the opposite wall. "Please."

Draco sat silently for what seemed like an eternity, Harry could feel the tension as Ron watched Draco and Draco watched the wall and Hermione watched Harry, until finally the blonde head nodded almost imperceptibly, and relief flooded Harry instantly.

Hermione seemed to relax, both her and Draco deflating as Ron began to fidget nervously. "So who's going to do this?" He asked, looking from Harry to Hermione.

Harry opened his mouth to ask Hermione to do it, to argue that she was far more talented in this particular area, but the words had barely formed on his tongue before Hermione answered with a short, "Harry will."

"What?" Harry asked, swiveling around to stare at her, "Why me?"

"You have to really mean it." Hermione answered cryptically, watching him with an expression that made Harry uncomfortable, but Draco was already settling on Ron's bed that he offered and he didnt want to ask Hermione while Draco was awake.

"Fine." Harry answered softly, standing and passing his friends as he approached Draco, who was sitting cross-legged on Ron's bed with his hands clasped and fear in his eyes, watching Harry with a clenched jaw and watery eyes but nodded at him nonetheless when Harry raised his wand, keeping his eyes firmly on Harry's even as Harry lowered the wand to point directly between the grey orbs.

Harry stared deep into those eyes and felt his heart rise into his throat as a wave of emotion rose in him, choking him for the slightest of seconds and he suddenly wished Ron and Hermione werent in the room so he could kiss Draco. He let the emotion fill him however, letting the affection and fondness he had for him and focusing on it as he whispered "_Imperio_."

At once the tingle and lovely feeling the familiar curse spread up Harry's arm as Draco's face went completely blank and he smiled softly, knowing it had made its connection and he spoke softly. "Draco, can you hear me?"

Draco nodded, his vacant eyes fixed on a spot above Harry's left ear.

"I want you to sleep, not dream, and not attempt to kill yourself, just sleep, can you do that?" He asked, keeping his voice as soft but as firm as he could and Draco nodded again, his eyes fluttering closed and his body collapsed on himself, falling sideways onto Ron's bed as he fell into a deep and what looked like a peaceful sleep.

Even as Harry lowered his wand he could feel the buzzing connection still vibrating through his arm and he realized his heart was still pounding from the surprisingly intimate experience that was and he blinked, watching Draco sleep for a few seconds before he heard Hermione speak up timidly from behind him.

"So how long has this thing between you two been going on Harry?"

* * *

so holy shit im sorry about the errors i had in this, i typed it on my iphone and didnt even catch half of them:P


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